Healthy Body Weight may Modify Effect of Abnormal Birth Weight on Metabolic Syndrome in Adolescents

Objective: This study aimed to examine the association between birth weight (BW) and metabolic syndrome (MetS) in adolescents and to further investigate whether having a healthy body weight could modify the potential adverse influence of abnormal BW on MetS risk. Methods: A total of 6,206 participants aged 10 to 17 years were recruited using data from a Chinese national survey conducted in 2012. Gestational age-specific BW percentiles were used to classify small for gestational age (SGA), appropriate for gestational age, and large for gestational age (LGA). Fractional polynomial regression, logistic regression, and population-attributable risk (PAR) were used to assess the relationship between BMI and BW with MetS. Results: MetS risk increased by 73% (OR = 1.73, 95% CI: 1.06-2.84) in SGA adolescents with overweight or obesity, but not in those without overweight, compared with their counterparts with BW appropriate for gestational age. A huge difference between PAR percent of MetS because of SGA and PAR percent because of overweight or obesity was detected. For example, PAR percent of SGA was 2.4% (95% CI: 0.1%-4.6%) in adolescents with overweight or obesity, while PAR percent of overweight or obesity was 44.2% (95% CI: 33.3%-53.2%) in those who were SGA infants. Conclusions: These findings suggest that healthy body weight could relieve the adverse impact of SGA on MetS in adolescents.