Fetal growth and cardiovascular risk factors in Jamaican schoolchildren

Forrester TE, Wilks RJ

1996

Kingston, Jamaica

This retrospective study involved 2,337 children aged 6-16 years born in the same hospital. Blood pressure in childhood was inversely related to birth weight and directly to current weight. Impaired glycaemic control and high serum cholesterol were related to short length at birth, height deficit in childhood and childhood obesity

The results of this study were not confirmed by the results of the large Jerusalem study (entry 0075). As in many studies relating an adult condition to birth size, 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)