Small body size at birth, as a marker of an adverse intrauterine environment could be an important risk factor for death from cardiovascular disease, according to the study published in International Journal of Epidemiology.. The findings was obtained by studying 13830 individuals born between 1924 and 1944 in Finland. Subsequently data pertaining to the primary causes of death between 1971 and 1998 was obtained from the Finnish National Death Register.
The results of the study showed that 1668 men and 671 women had died during the follow-up. The mean age at death was 56. Extensive research into the data yielded some very interesting findings such as low birth weight was associated with increased mortality due to all causes in females. Similarly, short length at birth was a predictor of mortality due to all causes in females. But this finding was found only in females and was not found in males.Among those males who had died due to cardiovascular disease, they had an association with lower birth weight and lower length at birth. In females there was an association between those who had died of cardiovascular disease to short length at birth and an association between those who had died due to non cardiovascular disease and both low birth weight and short length at birth.
Another finding from the study was that cancer-related death was associated with higher birth weight and ponderal index only in the male sex.
Death before 55 years was associated with low birth weight and short length at birth in both males and females.
