Non-linear relationship between birthweight and cardiometabolic risk factors in Chinese adolescents and adults.

Aim To investigate the relationship between birthweight and cardiometabolic traits in two cohorts: one of Chinese adolescents and one of Chinese adults. Methods Birthweight and clinical data, including anthropometric traits, fasting plasma glucose and fasting plasma insulin levels, blood pressure and lipid profiles were collected from 2035 adolescents and 456 adults. A subset of 735 subjects underwent an oral glucose tolerance test to measure the glucose and insulin concentrations at 0, 15, 30, 60 and 120 min. Results Among adolescents, birthweight showed U-shaped relationships with larger body size, obesity, abdominal obesity in girls, insulin resistance and worse lipid profiles (0.0013   0.05), with abdominally obese adolescents in the lowest birthweight category ( ≤ 2.5 kg) having the highest risk of insulin resistance. Conclusions Both high and low birthweights are associated with an increased risk of cardiometabolic abnormalities including obesity, abdominal obesity, hyperglycaemia, dyslipidaemia and insulin resistance, as well as with β-cell dysfunction.