Background: Small body size at birth and slow growth during the first 2 years after birth, leading to low body mass index (BMI) at 2 years, are associated with coronary heart disease and stroke in adult life. We tested the hypothesis that this path of growth is associated with an atherogenic lipid profile in later life.
Methods: We measured serum lipid concentrations at age 57-70 years in 1999 members of the Helsinki Birth Cohort. They were randomly selected from an original cohort of 8760 people and had on average 11 measurements of height and weight between birth and 2 years of age.
Results: The 18% of subjects who used lipid-lowering medication had a lower BMI at birth and at 2 years. These subjects were excluded from the analyses of lipid profiles. A 1 kg/m(2) lower BMI at birth was associated with 0.051 mmol/l (95% CI -0.001 to 0.103; P = 0.05) higher non-HDL cholesterol and 0.018 g/l higher (0.005-0.031; P = 0.006) apolipoprotein B concentrations. A slower increase in BMI during the first 6 months after birth was associated with lower HDL and higher non-HDL cholesterol concentrations. A 1 kg/m(2) lower BMI at 2 years was associated with 0.020 mmol/l lower (0.004-0.036; P = 0.02) HDL cholesterol and 0.059 mmol/l (0.020-0.099; P = 0.003) higher non-HDL cholesterol and 0.018 mmol/l higher (0.008-0.028; P < 0.001) apolipoprotein B concentrations. The age at weaning off breast milk was not associated with lipid profile in later life.
Conclusion: Small body size at birth and slow weight gain during infancy are associated with an atherogenic lipid profile in adult life.