Association between Low Birth Weight and High Adult Waist-to-Height Ratio in Non-Obese Women: A Cross-sectional Study in a Japanese Population

Association between Low Birth Weight and High Adult Waist-to-Height Ratio in Non-Obese Women: A Cross-sectional Study in a Japanese Population

KIYOMI HARADA,¹ SAYUKI TORII,^2,3 AYAKO SARUWATARI,¹ YURIKA TANAKA,¹ KAORI KITAOKA,¹ JUNPEI TAKAAKI,² WATARU AOI,¹ SAYORI WADA,¹ TAKAYOSHI OHKUBO,³ KATSUYUKI MIURA,³ YOSHIYUKI WATANABE⁴ and AKANE HIGASHI¹

¹Division of Applied Life Sciences, Graduate School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Kyoto Prefectural University, Kyoto, Japan
²Department of Medical Checkup, Kyoto First Red Cross Hospital, Kyoto, Japan
³Department of Health Science, Shiga University of Medical Science, Shiga, Japan
⁴Department of Epidemiology for Community Health and Medicine, Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine Graduate School of Medical Science, Kyoto, Japan

Low birth weight has been associated with cardiovascular diseases. The waist-to-height ratio is a good indicator of risks for these diseases. The objective of this study was to examine the associations between birth weight and adult waist-to-height ratio in a Japanese population. A cross-sectional study, comprised of 851 subjects (401 men and 450 women) aged 35-62 years who were born at full term, was conducted at a medical checkup. The subjects responded to a questionnaire about weight at birth, and data on physical characteristics were collected from the results of the medical checkup. The subjects were stratified with sex and a Body Mass Index of 25 kg/m² to elucidate the effects of birth weight on adult waist-to-height ratio. Analysis of covariance was used to compare the physical condition among the 4 birth weight categories. After adjusting for age, alcohol consumption, smoking status and exercise, the height was significantly lower in the birth weight < 2,500 g category among men (P < 0.001) and women (P < 0.001), while the waist-to-height ratio was significantly higher in the birth weight < 2,500 g category, compared with the > 3,500 g category in the non-obese women (P = 0.004), but not in the obese women. In conclusion, low birth weight was independently associated with a low adult height among men and women and with a high adult waist-to-height ratio among non-obese women. Our results suggest that intrauterine environmental insults might lead to accumulation of visceral fat among non-obese women.

keywords —— birth weight; cross-sectional study; Japanese; sex difference; waist-to-height ratio

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Tohoku J. Exp. Med., 2012, 228, 205-214

Correspondence: Kiyomi Harada, Division of Applied Life Sciences, Graduate School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Kyoto Prefectural University, 1-5 Hangi-cho, Shimogamo, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto 606-8522, Japan.

e-mail: s810731010@kpu.ac.jp