Association between infant birth weight and maternal cardiovascular risk factors in the health, aging, and body composition study.
OBJECTIVE
Mothers who deliver a low-birth-weight (LBW) infant may themselves be at excess risk for cardiovascular disease. We investigated whether older women who bore LBW infants had higher blood pressure, lipid, glucose, insulin, interleukin 6 (IL-6), and C-reactive protein concentrations, and pulse wave velocity compared to women with normal-weight births.


METHODS
Participants were 446 women with a mean age of 80 years and 47% black. Women reported birth weight and complications for each pregnancy. Analysis was limited to first births not complicated by hypertension or preeclampsia.


RESULTS
Women who had delivered a first-birth infant weighing less than 2500 g had a lower body mass index (BMI) compared with women with a normal-weight (>or=2500 g) infant (26.7 versus 28.4 kg/m2; p=0.02), but they had a larger abdominal circumference for BMI (97.9 versus 95.5 cm; p=0.05). They also were marginally more likely to be administered antihypertensive medication (p=0.06). After adjustment for BMI, race, and age, women with a history of a small infant had elevations in systolic blood pressure (p=0.05) and greater IL-6 levels (p=0.02) and were more insulin resistant (p=0.05) compared with women with a normal-weight infant.


CONCLUSIONS
These findings suggest that a history of LBW delivery identifies women with elevated cardiovascular risk factors.
Catov
Janet M
JM
Department of Epidemiology, University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health, Pittsburgh, PA 15261, USA. jmcst43@pitt.edu
Newman
Anne B
AB
Roberts
James M
JM
Sutton-Tyrrell
Kim C
KC
Kelsey
Sheryl F
SF
Harris
Tamara
T
Jackson
Rebecca
R
Colbert
Lisa H
LH
Satterfield
Suzanne
S
Ayonayon
Hilsa N
HN
Ness
Roberta B
RB
D001741:Black or African American / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D000368:Aged; D001824:Body Constitution; D050218:Body Fat Distribution; D015992:Body Mass Index; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000208:ethnology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007230:Infant, Low Birth Weight; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008429:Maternal Welfare / Q000208:ethnology; D010414:Pennsylvania / Q000453:epidemiology; D011247:Pregnancy; D017584:Reproductive History; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012307:Risk Factors; D012907:Smoking; D049629:Waist-Hip Ratio; D044465:White People / Q000706:statistics & numerical data