Abstract
Background: There is evidence that birthweight is positively associated with body mass index (BMI) in later life, but it remains unclear whether this is explained by genetic factors or the intrauterine environment. We analysed the association between birthweight and BMI from infancy to adulthood within twin pairs, which provides insights into the role of genetic and environmental individual-specific factors. Methods: This study is based on the data from 27 twin cohorts in 17 countries. The pooled data included 78 642 twin individuals (20 635 monozygotic and 18 686 same-sex dizygotic twin pairs) with information on birthweight and a total of 214 930 BMI measurements at ages ranging from 1 to 49 years. The association between birthweight and BMI was analysed at both the individual and within-pair levels using linear regression analyses. Results: At the individual level, a 1-kg increase in birthweight was linearly associated with up to 0.9 kg/m2 higher BMI (P < 0.001). Within twin pairs, regression coefficients were generally greater (up to 1.2 kg/m2 per kg birthweight, P < 0.001) than those from the individual-level analyses. Intra-pair associations between birthweight and later BMI were similar in both zygosity groups and sexes and were lower in adulthood. Conclusions: These findings indicate that environmental factors unique to each individual have an important role in the positive association between birthweight and later BMI, at least until young adulthood.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 1488-1498 |
| Number of pages | 11 |
| Journal | International journal of epidemiology |
| Volume | 46 |
| Issue number | 5 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Oct 2017 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:This work was supported by the Academy of Finland (grant number #266592). The Australian Twin Registry is supported by a Centre of Research Excellence (grant ID 1079102) from the National Health and Medical Research Council administered by the University of Melbourne. The Boston University Twin Project is funded by grants (#R01 HD068435 #R01 MH062375) from the National Institutes of Health to K.S. The Carolina African American Twin Study of Aging (CAATSA) was funded by a grant from the National Institute on Aging (grant 1RO1-AG13662-01A2) to K.E.W. Colorado Twin Registry is funded by NIDA-funded centre grant DA011015, & Longitudinal Twin Study HD10333; B.M.H. is supported by 5T32DA017637-11. Since its origin, the East Flanders Prospective Survey has been partly supported by grants from the Fund of Scientific Research, Flanders and Twins, a non-profit Association for Scientific Research in Multiple Births (Belgium). Data collection and analyses in Finnish twin cohorts have been supported by ENGAGE-European Network for Genetic and Genomic Epidemiology, FP7-HEALTH-F4-2007, grant agreement number 201413, National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (grants AA-12502, AA-00145 and AA-09203 to R.J.R., the Academy of Finland Center of Excellence in Complex Disease Genetics (grant numbers: 213506, 129680),Centre of Excellence in Research on Mitochondria, Metabolism and Disease (FinMIT, grant 272376), the Academy of Finland (grants 100499, 205585, 118555, 141054, 265240, 263278 and 264146 to J.K. and grant 266286 to K.P.), the Finnish Diabetes Research Foundation, Novo Nordisk Foundation, Helsinki University Central Hospital and University of Helsinki. K.S. is supported by Osaka University's International Joint Research Promotion Program. Gemini was supported by a grant from Cancer Research UK (C1418/A7974). Anthropometric measurements of the Hungarian twins were supported by Medexpert Ltd, Budapest, Hungary. Longitudinal Israeli Study of Twins was funded by the Starting Grant no. 240994 from the European Research Council (ERC) to A.K. The Michigan State University Twin Registry has been supported by Michigan State University, as well as grants R01-MH081813, R01-MH0820-54, R01-MH092377-02, R21-MH070542-01 and R03-MH63851-01 from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), R01-HD066040 from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute for Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) and 11-SPG-2518 from the MSU Foundation. The content of this manuscript is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the NIMH, the NICHD or the National Institutes of Health. The Murcia Twin Registry is supported by Fundacion Séneca, Regional Agency for Science and Technology, Murcia, Spain (08633/PHCS/08, 15302/PHCS/10 & 19479/PI/14) and Ministry of Science and Innovation, Spain (PSI2009-11560 & PSI2014-56680-R). PETS was supported by grants from the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (grant numbers 437015 and 607358 to J.C. and R.S.), the Bonnie Babes Foundation (grant number BBF20704 to J.M.C.), the Financial Markets Foundation for Children (grant no. 032-2007 to J.M.C.) and by the Victorian Government's Operational Infrastructure Support Program. The Quebec Newborn Twin Study acknowledges financial support from the Fonds Québécois de la Recherche sur la Société et la Culture, the Fonds de la Recherche en Santé du Québec, the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the National Health Research Development Program, the Canadian Institutes for Health Research, Sainte-Justine Hospital's Research Center, and the Canada Research Chair Program (M.B.). The Twins Early Development Study (TEDS) is supported by a program grant (MR/M021475/1) from the UK Medical Research Council and the work on obesity in TEDS is supported in part by a grant from the UK Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (31/ D19086). The West Japan Twins and Higher Order Multiple Births Registry was supported by Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B) (grant number 15H05105) from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science. Netherlands Twin Register acknowledges the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) and MagW/ZonMW grants 904-61-090, 985-10-002, 912-10-020, 904-61-193,480-04-004, 463-06-001, 451-04-034, 400-05-717, Addiction-31160008, Middelgroot-911-09-032, Spinozapremie 56-464-14192; VU University's Institute for Health and Care Research (EMGOþ); the European Research Council (ERC-230374), the Avera Institute, Sioux Falls, South Dakota (USA). Y.Y., Y.-M.H., F.R., D.I.B., T.I.A.S., J.K. and K.S. planned the study design of the CODATwins project. Y.Y., G.W., M.B., T.C.E.Mv.B., S.O., K.J.S., M.A.S., C.F., C.D., T.L.N., K.E.W., A.K.-N., D.M., L.A., K.H., T.L.C., J.L.H., J.W., C.H.L., A.F., R.P.C., B.M.H., C.A.D., R.F.V., R.J.F.L., M.B.-A., H.B.-N., M.S., A.D.T., D.L.T., S.A.B., K.L.K., J.R.O., J.F.S.-R., L.C.-C., L.D., M.Bo., M.Br., G.D., F.V., J.R.H., I.B., T.S.N., J.M.C., R.S., F.R., P.T., G.B., D.N., C.M.A.H., R.P., F.J., F.N., Z.P., R.F.K., M.M., S.P., D.I.B. and J.K. collected the data used in this study. A.J. and K.S. were in charge of data management. A.J., R.S. and K.S. conducted the analyses. A.J. wrote the first draft of the manuscript and has primary responsibility of the final content. All authors have commented the manuscript and read and approved the final version of the manuscript. A.J. will act as guarantor for the paper.
Funding Information:
ENGAGE—European Network for Genetic and Genomic Epidemiology, FP7-HEALTH-F4-2007, grant agreement number 201413, National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (grants AA-12502, AA-00145 and AA-09203 to R.J.R., the Academy of Finland Center of Excellence in Complex Disease Genetics (grant numbers: 213506, 129680),Centre of Excellence in Research on Mitochondria, Metabolism and Disease (FinMIT, grant 272376), the Academy of Finland (grants 100499, 205585, 118555, 141054, 265240, 263278 and 264146 to J.K. and grant 266286 to K.P.), the Finnish Diabetes Research Foundation, Novo Nordisk Foundation, Helsinki University Central Hospital and University of Helsinki. K.S. is supported by Osaka University’s International Joint Research Promotion Program. Gemini was supported by a grant from Cancer Research UK (C1418/A7974). Anthropometric measurements of the Hungarian twins were supported by Medexpert Ltd, Budapest, Hungary. Longitudinal Israeli Study of Twins was funded by the Starting Grant no. 240994 from the European Research Council (ERC) to A.K. The Michigan State University Twin Registry has been supported by Michigan State University, as well as grants R01-MH081813, R01-MH0820–54, R01-MH092377–02, R21-MH070542–01 and R03-MH63851–01 from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), R01-HD066040 from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute for Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) and 11-SPG-2518 from the MSU Foundation. The content of this manuscript is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the NIMH, the NICHD or the National Institutes of Health. The Murcia Twin Registry is supported by Fundación Séneca, Regional Agency for Science and Technology, Murcia, Spain (08633/PHCS/08, 15302/PHCS/10 & 19479/PI/14) and Ministry of Science and Innovation, Spain (PSI2009–11560 & PSI2014–56680-R). PETS was supported by grants from the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (grant numbers 437015 and 607358 to J.C. and R.S.), the Bonnie Babes Foundation (grant number BBF20704 to J.M.C.), the Financial Markets Foundation for Children (grant no. 032-2007 to J.M.C.) and by the Victorian Government’s Operational Infrastructure Support Program. The Quebec Newborn Twin Study acknowledges financial support from the Fonds Québécois de la Recherche sur la Société et la Culture, the Fonds de la Recherche en Santé du Québec, the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the National Health Research Development Program, the Canadian Institutes for Health Research, Sainte-Justine Hospital’s Research Center, and the Canada Research Chair Program (M.B.). The Twins Early Development Study (TEDS) is supported by a program grant (MR/M021475/1) from the UK Medical Research Council and the work on obesity in TEDS is supported in part by a grant from the UK Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (31/ D19086). The West Japan Twins and Higher Order Multiple Births Registry was supported by Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B) (grant number 15H05105) from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science. Netherlands Twin Register acknowledges the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) and MagW/ZonMW grants 904–61–090, 985–10–002, 912–10–020, 904–61–193,480–04–004, 463–06–001, 451–04–034, 400–05–717, Addiction-31160008, Middelgroot-911-09–032, Spinozapremie 56– 464–14192; VU University’s Institute for Health and Care Research (EMGO+); the European Research Council (ERC—230374), the Avera Institute, Sioux Falls, South Dakota (USA). Y.Y., Y.-M.H., F.R., D.I.B., T.I.A.S., J.K. and K.S. planned the study design of the CODATwins project. Y.Y., G.W., M.B., T.C.E.Mv.B., S.O., K.J.S., M.A.S., C.F., C.D., T.L.N., K.E.W., A.K.-N., D.M., L.A., K.H., T.L.C., J.L.H., J.W., C.H.L., A.F., R.P.C., B.M.H., C.A.D., R.F.V., R.J.F.L., M.B.-A., H.B.-N., M.S., A.D.T., D.L.T., S.A.B., K.L.K., J.R.O., J.F.S.-R., L.C.-C., L.D., M.Bo., M.Br., G.D., F.V., J.R.H., I.B., T.S.N., J.M.C., R.S., F.R., P.T., G.B., D.N., C.M.A.H., R.P., F.J., F.N., Z.P., R.F.K., M.M., S.P., D.I.B. and J.K. collected the data used in this study. A.J. and K.S. were in charge of data management. A.J., R.S. and K.S. conducted the analyses. A.J. wrote the first draft of the manuscript and has primary responsibility of the final content. All authors have commented the manuscript and read and approved the final version of the manuscript. A.J. will act as guarantor for the paper.
Funding Information:
This work was supported by the Academy of Finland (grant number #266592). The Australian Twin Registry is supported by a Centre of Research Excellence (grant ID 1079102) from the National Health and Medical Research Council administered by the University of Melbourne. The Boston University Twin Project is funded by grants (#R01 HD068435 #R01 MH062375) from the National Institutes of Health to K.S. The Carolina African American Twin Study of Aging (CAATSA) was funded by a grant from the National Institute on Aging (grant 1RO1-AG13662–01A2) to K.E.W. Colorado Twin Registry is funded by NIDA-funded centre grant DA011015, & Longitudinal Twin Study HD10333; B.M.H. is supported by 5T32DA017637–11. Since its origin, the East Flanders Prospective Survey has been partly supported by grants from the Fund of Scientific Research, Flanders and Twins, a non-profit Association for Scientific Research in Multiple Births (Belgium). Data collection and analyses in Finnish twin cohorts have been supported by
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Keywords
- Birthweight
- Body mass index
- Twins