title: Low Birth Weight as a Predictor of Cardiovascular Risk Factors in Childhood and Adolescence? The PEP Family Heart Study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Low birth weight is considered a risk factor for cardiovascular disease (CVD) in later life. Because data in children and adolescents are sparse and controversial, we assessed the association of birth weight with CVD risk factors in German youths.
  
  
  METHODS
  We categorized 843 urban children and adolescents aged 3-18 years by quintiles of birth weight and measured nine traditional risk factors in terms of body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC), systolic (SBP) and diastolic (DBP) blood pressure, total cholesterol (TC), LDL-C, HDL-C, Non HDL-C and triglycerides (TG). SPSS 21 was used for statistical analysis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Mean values and prevalence of nine anthropometric and lipid risk variables were equally distributed over the five birth weight groups. Though risk factors clustered between 3.0 kg and 4.0 kg of birth weight in both genders we found only one significant correlation of birth weight with TG for males and females and another one for HDL-C in males. The strongest clustering of significant regression coefficients occurred in the 2(nd) birth weight quintile for SBP (ß 0.018), TC (ß -0.050), LDL-C (ß -0.039), non LDL-C (ß -0.049) and log TG (ß -0.001) in males and females.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Overall we did not find significant associations between birth weight and nine traditional cardiovascular risk factors in children and adolescents. However, the 2(nd) quintile of birth weight might suggest clustering of risk factors.
authors.affiliation: Arteriosklerose-Praeventions-lnstitut München, Nürnberg, Germany.
authors.forename: Gerda-Maria
authors.initials: GM
authors.lastname: Haas
authors.affiliation: Arteriosklerose-Praeventions-lnstitut München, Nürnberg, Germany.
authors.forename: Evelyn
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Liepold
authors.affiliation: Arteriosklerose-Praeventions-lnstitut München, Nürnberg, Germany; Ludwig Maximilians University München, Germany.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Schwandt
keywords: Birth weight; CVD risk factors; associations in youths