Birth weight and risk of cardiovascular disease in a cohort of women followed up since 1976

Rich-Edwards JW, Stampfer MJ

1997

Boston, USA

This study belongs to the framework of the Nurses' health study. Among the 70,297 women free of cardiovascular disease at the beginning of the study who reported birth weight in the 1992 questionnaire there were 1309 first cases of non-fatal cardiovascular disease. The data provide evidence that increasing birth weight is associated with decreasing risk of non-fatal cardio-vascular disease.

As in many studies relating an adult disease to birth weight, birth order has not been taken into consideration. Yet birth order is the best known single factor influencing birth weight. For example according to a British calculation the average difference in birth weight between first born and second born children is 138 grams. (see Odent M., Tsujino J., Studies exploring health in relation to intrauterine life should look at birth order, BMJ 1997; 314:1416)