Relationship between birth weight and cardiovascular risk factors in Japanese young adults

A number of studies have recently shown a significant inverse relationship between birth weight and incidences of chronic and metabolic disorders such as hypertension and type 2 diabetes, though the findings are not consistent. So far, few investigations have been performed to determine whether this relationship exists in Japanese young adults. We investigated the influence of birth weight on cardiovascular risk factors such as blood pressure and several metabolic variables in Japanese young adults. The data of 299 medical students of Dokkyo University School of Medicine (207 men, 92 women; mean age ± SD: 23 ± 2 years) who underwent a medical check-up in 1998 were analyzed. Information on pregnancies and measurements at birth were obtained from The Maternal and Child Health Handbook, which is provided to every pregnant woman by the Ministry of Health and Welfare of Japan. Blood pressure was measured twice in the sitting position using an automated device based on the cuff-oscillometric method. The systolic and diastolic blood pressure in young adulthood was positively correlated with current body weight and body mass index (BMI) in both genders. Although birth weight was not significantly correlated with blood pressure in the young adults examined in the present study, male birth weight was inversely correlated with serum total cholesterol and triglyceride concentrations in young adulthood, independently of current BMI. These results partly support the hypothesis for the first time that low birth weight may be one of the risk factors for subsequent cardiovascular disease in Japanese men.