Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jkksz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-19T00:10:09.489Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Birth characteristics and all-cause mortality: a sibling analysis using the Uppsala birth cohort multigenerational study

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 May 2016

S. Juárez ,
A. Goodman ,
B. De Stavola  and
I. Koupil
S. Juárez*
Affiliation:
Centre for Health Equity Studies (CHESS), Stockholm University/Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden Division of Occupation and Environmental Medicine, Lund University, Lund, Sweden
A. Goodman
Affiliation:
Centre for Health Equity Studies (CHESS), Stockholm University/Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK
B. De Stavola
Affiliation:
London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK
I. Koupil
Affiliation:
Centre for Health Equity Studies (CHESS), Stockholm University/Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden Department of Public Health Sciences, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden
*
*Address for correspondence: S. Juárez, Centre for Health Equity Studies, Stockholm University/Karolinska Institute, Sveavägen 160, Sveaplan, Stockholm, Sweden. (Email [email protected])
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This paper investigates the association between perinatal health and all-cause mortality for specific age intervals, assessing the contribution of maternal socioeconomic characteristics and the presence of maternal-level confounding. Our study is based on a cohort of 12,564 singletons born between 1915 and 1929 at the Uppsala University Hospital. We fitted Cox regression models to estimate age-varying hazard ratios of all-cause mortality for absolute and relative birth weight and for gestational age. We found that associations with mortality vary by age and according to the measure under scrutiny, with effects being concentrated in infancy, childhood or early adult life. For example, the effect of low birth weight was greatest in the first year of life and then continued up to 44 years of age (HR between 2.82 and 1.51). These associations were confirmed in within-family analyses, which provided no evidence of residual confounding by maternal characteristics. Our findings support the interpretation that policies oriented towards improving population health should invest in birth outcomes and hence in maternal health.

Keywords

birth weightfetal developmentlife-coursemortalitySweden
Type
Original Article
Information
Journal of Developmental Origins of Health and Disease , Volume 7 , Issue 4 , August 2016 , pp. 374 - 383
Check for updates
Copyright
© Cambridge University Press and the International Society for Developmental Origins of Health and Disease 2016 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1. Breslau, N, Johnson, EO, Lucia, VC. Academic achievement of low birthweight children at age 11: the role of cognitive abilities at school entry. J Abnorm Child Psych. 2001; 29, 273–279.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
2. Tong, S, Baghurst, P, McMichael, A. Birthweight and cognitive development during childhood. J Paediatr Child Health. 2006; 42, 98–103.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
3. Godfrey, KM, Barker, DJ. Fetal programming and adult health. Public Health Nutr. 2001; 4, 611–624.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
4. Barker, DJ. Fetal origins of coronary heart disease. BMJ. 1995; 311, 171–174.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
5. Barker, DJ, Hales, CN, Fall, CH, et al. Type 2 (non-insulin-dependent) diabetes mellitus, hypertension and hyperlipidaemia (syndrome X): relation to reduced fetal growth. Diabetologia. 1993; 36, 62–67.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
6. Gillman, MW. A life course approach to obesity. In A Life Course Approach to Chronic Disease Epidemiology (eds. Diana K, Ben-Shlomo Y), 2004; pp. 189–217. Oxford University Press: Oxford.Google Scholar
7. Leon, DA, Lithell, HO, Vagero, D, et al. 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. BMJ. 1998; 317, 241–245.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
8. Risnes, KR, Vatten, LJ, Baker, JL, et al. Birthweight and mortality in adulthood: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Int J Epidemiol. 2011; 40, 647–661.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
9. Baker, JL, Olsen, LW, Sorensen, TIA. Weight at birth and all-cause mortality in adulthood. Epidemiology. 2008; 19, 197–203.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
10. Wilcox, AJ, Russell, IT. Birthweight and perinatal mortality: II. On weight-specific mortality. Int J Epidemiol. 1983; 12, 319–325.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
11. Power, C, Li, L. Cohort study of birthweight, mortality, and disability. BMJ. 2000; 320, 840–841.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
12. Friedlander, Y, Paltiel, O, Deutsch, L, et al. Birthweight and relationship with infant, child and adult mortality in the Jerusalem perinatal study. Paediatr Perinat Epidemiol. 2003; 17, 398–406.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
13. Kajantie, E, Osmond, C, Barker, DJP, et al. Size at birth as a predictor of mortality in adulthood: a follow-up of 350,000 person-years. Int J Epidemiol. 2005; 34, 655–663.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
14. Malin, GL, Morris, RK, Riley, R, Teune, MJ, Khan, KS. When is birthweight at term abnormally low? A systematic review and meta-analysis of the association and predictive ability of current birthweight standards for neonatal outcomes. BJOG. 2014; 121, 515–526.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
15. Sovio, U, Jones, R, Dos Santos Silva, I, Koupil, I. Birth size and survival in breast cancer patients from the Uppsala Birth Cohort Study. Cancer Causes Control. 2013; 24, 1643–1651.Google Scholar
16. Andersen, AM, Osler, M. Birth dimensions, parental mortality, and mortality in early adult age: a cohort study of Danish men born in 1953. Int J Epidemiol. 2004; 33, 92–99.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
17. Eriksson, M, Wallander, MA, Krakau, I, Wedel, H, Svardsudd, K. The impact of birth weight on coronary heart disease morbidity and mortality in a birth cohort followed up for 85 years: a population-based study of men born in 1913. J Intern Med. 2004; 256, 472–481.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
18. Smith, GD, Hart, C, Blane, D, Gillis, C, Hawthorne, V. Lifetime socioeconomic position and mortality: prospective observational study. BMJ. 1997; 314, 547–552.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
19. Gluckman, P, Hanson, M. Developmental Origins of Health and Disease. 2006. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
20. Class, QA, Rickert, ME, Lichtenstein, P, D’Onofrio, BM. Birth weight, physical morbidity, and mortality: a population-based sibling-comparison study. Am J Epidemiol. 2014; 179, 550–558.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
21. Joseph, KS, Kramer, MS. Review of the evidence on fetal and early childhood antecedents of adult chronic disease. Epidemiol Rev. 1996; 18, 158–174.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
22. Barker, D. Fetal and Infant Origins of Adult Disease. 1992. Wiley-Blackwell: London.Google Scholar
23. Kuh, D, Ben-Shlomo, Y, Lynch, J, Hallqvist, J, Power, C. Life course epidemiology. J Epidemiol Community Health. 2003; 57, 778–783.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
24. Maggi, S, Irwin, LJ, Siddiqi, A, Hertzman, C. The social determinants of early child development: an overview. J Paediatr Child Health. 2010; 46, 627–635.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
25. Juarez, SP, Merlo, J. Revisiting the effect of maternal smoking during pregnancy on offspring birthweight: a quasi-experimental sibling analysis in Sweden. PLoS One. 2013; 8, e61734.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
26. Koupil, I. The Uppsala studies on developmental origins of health and disease. J Intern Med. 2007; 261, 426–436.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
27. Koupil, I, Goodman, A. Health Equity: a life course approach. Public Service Review: European Union. 2011; 11, 3.Google Scholar
28. Cunningham, FG, Leveno, KJ, Bloom, SL, et al. Williams Obstetrics, 22nd edn, 2005. McGraw-Hill: New York.Google Scholar
29. Kramer, MS, Platt, RW, Wen, SW, et al. A new and improved population-based Canadian reference for birth weight for gestational age. Pediatrics. 2001; 108, E35.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
30. Meddelanden i samordningsfrågor [Report on co-ordination issues], 1989. Statistics Sweden: Stockholm.Google Scholar
31. Goodman, A, Gisselman, MD, Koupil, I. Birth characteristics and early-life social charactristics predict unequal educational outcomes across the life course and across generations. Longit Life Course Stud. 2010; 1, 317–338.Google Scholar
32. Mathers, CD, Bernard, C, Iburg, MK, et al. Global Burden of Disease in 2002: Data Sources, Methods and Results. 2003. World Health Organization: Geneva.Google Scholar
33. Clayton, D, Hill, M. Statistical Models in Epidemiology. 1993. Oxford Science Publications: Oxford.Google Scholar
34. Mann, V, De Stavola, BL, Leon, DA. Separating within and between effects in family studies: an application to the study of blood pressure in children. Stat Med. 2004; 23, 2745–2756.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
35. Goodman, A, Heshmati, A, Malki, N, Koupil, I. Associations between birth characteristics and eating disorders across the life course: findings from 2 million males and females born in Sweden, 1975–1998. Am J Epidemiol. 2014; 179, 852–863.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
36. Frisell, T, Oberg, S, Kuja-Halkola, R, Sjolander, A. Sibling comparison designs bias from non-shared confounders and measurement error. Epidemiology. 2012; 23, 713–720.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
37. Swamy, GK, Ostbye, T, Skjaerven, R. Association of preterm birth with long-term survival, reproduction, and next-generation preterm birth. J Am Med Assoc. 2008; 299, 1429–1436.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
38. Koupil, I, Leon, DA, Lithell, HO. Length of gestation is associated with mortality from cerebrovascular disease. J Epidemiol Community Health. 2005; 59, 473–474.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
39. Rajaleid, K, Manor, O, Koupil, I. Does the strength of the association between foetal growth rate and ischaemic heart disease mortality differ by social circumstances in early or later life? J Epidemiol Community Health. 2008; 62, e6.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
40. Chauhan, SP, Grobman, WA, Gherman, RA, et al. Suspicion and treatment of the macrosomic fetus: a review. Am J Obstet Gynecol. 2005; 193, 332–346.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
41. Barker, DJP. In utero programming of chronic disease. Clin Sci. 1998; 95, 115–128.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
42. Silva dos Santos, I, De Stavola, B, McCormack, V. Factors and subsequent risk of breast cancer. Birth size and breast cancer risk: re-analysis of individual participant data from 32 studies. PLoS Med. 2008; 5, 1372–1386.Google Scholar
43. Ross, JA. High birthweight and cancer: evidence and implications. Cancer Epidem Biomar. 2006; 15, 1–2.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
44. Wilcox, AJ. On the importance - and the unimportance - of birthweight. Int J Epidemiol. 2001; 30, 1233–1241.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Supplementary material: File

Juárez supplementary material

Appendix

Download Juárez supplementary material(File)
File 85 KB