title: Sex Differences in the Association Between Birth Weight and Adult Type 2 Diabetes.
abstract: Low birth weight is a well-established risk factor for type 2 diabetes, but the risk at high birth weight levels remains uncertain. Potential sex differences in the associations are unexplored. We investigated whether sex influences the association of birth weight and adult type 2 diabetes, using a cohort of 113,801 men and 109,298 women, born 1936-1983, from the Copenhagen School Health Records Register, Denmark. During 5.6 million person-years of follow-up, 7,750 men and 4,736 women had a diagnosis of adult type 2 diabetes (30 years of age or older) obtained from national registers. When birth weights between 3.251 and 3.750 kg were used as the reference group for each sex separately, women with birth weights in the categories of 2.000 to 2.750 kg and 4.751 to 5.500 kg had hazard ratios [HRs] of type 2 diabetes of 1.46 (95% CI, 1.34-1.59) and 1.56 (1.20-2.04), respectively, whereas men had HRs of 1.20 (1.12-1.30) and 0.93 (0.76-1.15). Thus, sex modified the association, with stronger risk estimates of type 2 diabetes in women at both low and high birth weights compared with men (P = 0.001). In conclusion, birth weight is more strongly associated with type 2 diabetes in women than in men. Future search for sex-specific causal mechanisms may provide new insights into the early origins of type 2 diabetes.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Preventive Medicine, Bispebjerg and Frederiksberg Hospitals, The Capital Region, Copenhagen, Denmark esther.zimmermann@regionh.dk.
authors.forename: Esther
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Zimmermann
authors.affiliation: Institute of Preventive Medicine, Bispebjerg and Frederiksberg Hospitals, The Capital Region, Copenhagen, Denmark.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gamborg
authors.affiliation: Institute of Preventive Medicine, Bispebjerg and Frederiksberg Hospitals, The Capital Region, Copenhagen, Denmark Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Basic Metabolic Research, Section on Metabolic Genetics, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark Medical Research Council Integrative Epidemiology Unit, Bristol University, Bristol, U.K.
authors.forename: Thorkild I A
authors.initials: TI
authors.lastname: Sørensen
authors.affiliation: Institute of Preventive Medicine, Bispebjerg and Frederiksberg Hospitals, The Capital Region, Copenhagen, Denmark Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Basic Metabolic Research, Section on Metabolic Genetics, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark.
authors.forename: Jennifer L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Baker
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001724:Birth Weight; D015331:Cohort Studies; D003718:Denmark / Q000453:epidemiology; D003924:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology*; D005260:Female; D005317:Fetal Growth Retardation / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005320:Fetal Macrosomia / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D007230:Infant, Low Birth Weight; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D016247:Information Storage and Retrieval; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D012042:Registries; D012307:Risk Factors; D012737:Sex Factors