Background: There is limited evidence on the effect of low birthweight on the use of cardiovascular medications and the role of health behaviors. This study aims to determine the independent effect of low birthweight and its combination with adult health behaviors on the number of dispensed cardiovascular medications.
Methods: We included 15618 participants with information on birthweight and self-reported health behaviors. Dispensed cardiovascular medications were identified from the Prescribed Drug Register based on a three-digit level Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical classification code (C01 to C10 and B01) and categorized into 0, 1, and ≥2 different types of medications. We applied multinomial logistic regression models estimating odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs).
Results: Participants with low birthweight had a higher estimated OR of using ≥2 types of cardiovascular medications (OR = 1.46, 95% CI = 1.06, 2.01). Further, an increased risk for using ≥2 types of cardiovascular medications was found in participants with poor health behaviors for normal (OR = 2.17, 95% CI = 1.80, 2.62) and high (OR = 1.84, 95% CI = 1.29, 2.62) birthweight. The strongest effect on using ≥2 types of cardiovascular medications was found for low birthweight and poor health behaviors (OR = 3.14, 95% CI = 1.80, 5.50).
Conclusion: This cohort study provides evidence that low birthweight increases the risk of using more types of cardiovascular medications in adulthood. This study also suggests that ideal health behaviors reduce this risk.
Keywords: birthweight; cardiovascular medications; fetal growth; health behaviors; life course.