Low birth weight in combination with catch‐up growth predicts the occurrence of the metabolic syndrome in men at late middle age: the Atherosclerosis and Insulin Resistance study

Abstract

The interaction between a low birth weight and an accelerated catch-up growth to early adulthood is associated with the occurrence of the metabolic syndrome in the late middle age. These findings are in accord with the concept that the effects of genes are conditioned by fetal growth, and that the effects of a small body size at birth are conditioned by growth during childhood and by environmental factors in childhood and adult life.