Low birth weight linked to higher incidence of type 2 diabetes in African American women

African American women born at a low or very low birth weight may be at a higher risk for developing type 2 diabetes. The findings, which appear in Diabetes Care, may explain in part the higher occurrence of type 2 diabetes in African American populations, which has a high prevalence of low birth weight.

Researchers from Boston University's Slone Epidemiology Center followed more than 21,000 women enrolled in the Black Women's Health Study over the course of 16 years, analyzing characteristics such as birth weight, current age, family history of diabetes, body mass index, physical activity and socioeconomic status.

The study results indicate that women with low birth weight had a 13 percent higher chance of developing type 2 diabetes than those with normal birth weight, and those with very low birth weight had a 40 percent higher chance of developing the disease. Low birth weight was defined as less than 2.5 kg, and very low birth weight as less than 1.5 kg. It appeared that body size did not play a role in this relationship as there was a clear association between birth weight and diabetes even for women who were not obese.

Although previous studies have shown that birth characteristics such as birth weight can have a major impact on adult health, this is the first large-scale study to demonstrate this effect in an African American population.

"African American women are at increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes, and also have higher rates of low birth weight than white women," said Edward Ruiz-Narváez, ScD, assistant professor of epidemiology at Boston University School of Public Health. "Our study shows a clear relationship between birth weight and diabetes that highlights the importance of further research for this at-risk group."

Diabetes Risk in Black Women: Where You Live A long-term study of African-American women’s health has revealed yet another factor, in addition to poor diet, lack of exercise, and low income, that amplifies the risk of adult-onset diabetes. Yvette Cozier, an epidemiologist at the Slone Epidemiology Center and an assistant professor of epidemiology at the School of Public Health, says that where a woman lives may also add to the likelihood of her developing the disease.

The new study, which appears online in the American Journal of Epidemiology, is the first to determine if, and how, the type of area an African-American woman lives in contributes to her chances of developing type 2 diabetes. Cozier and her colleagues found that the rate of new type 2 diabetes for women in neighborhoods with average incomes of $15,000 was one and a quarter times that of women in neighborhoods with average incomes of $100,000. When they compared rates in the lowest income neighborhoods to rates in the highest, the number of women diagnosed with type 2 diabetes was 1.65 times higher in the former. They found that the discrepancy exists even among women who have more education and earn more money than their low-income neighbors.