Association between birth weight and death from heart disease

BMJ 1999;318:259 ( 23 January )

Letters

Association between birth weight and death from heart disease

Data do not support association

Authors' reply

Data do not support association

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR $---$ Leon et al claim that their study is "the most persuasive evidence of a real association between size at birth andmortality from ischaemic heart disease."¹ However, the studyis open to different interpretations and, in my view, inflictsa serious wound on the birth measurement and adult diseasehypothesis.

Their table 3 shows that there was no significant association between birth weight and all cause mortality in either sex.Both sexes showed a positive association between birth weightand death from neoplasms and respiratory disease, though noneof these were significant. The negative association between birthweight and deaths from circulatory disease was significant onlyin men. In women there were no significant associations betweenbirth weight and any cause of death. Subsequently, most of theanalysis concentrates on the association of death from ischaemicdisease and birth measurements inmen.

This study is claimed (probably correctly) to . . . [Full text of this article]

CiteULike

Complore

Connotea

Del.icio.us Add to Digg

Digg

StumbleUpon Add to Technorati

Technorati What's this?

Relevant Article

Reduced fetal growth rate and increased risk of death from ischaemic heart disease: cohort study of 15 000 Swedish men and women born 1915-29: David A Leon, Hans O Lithell, Denny Vågerö, Ilona Koupilová, Rawya Mohsen, Lars Berglund, Ulla-Britt Lithell, and Paul M McKeigue
BMJ 1998 317: 241-245. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]