Both birth weight and adult lifestyle influence diabetes risk
First study to assess joint effects of early and later life risks for type 2 diabetes
2015-07-22
(Press-News.org) A low birth weight combined with an unhealthy lifestyle in adulthood are jointly related to an increased risk of type 2 diabetes, finds a study published in The BMJ this week.
The researchers say their findings emphasise the importance of adopting a healthy lifestyle to prevent the majority of type 2 diabetes cases in the population.
Diabetes has become a global epidemic, with an estimated 387 million living with diabetes and 4.9 million attributable deaths in 2014. Both unhealthy lifestyles and early life development have been implicated in the rapid rise of type 2 diabetes.
Previous studies suggest that the relation between early life exposures and later life risk of type 2 diabetes may be modified by lifestyle in adulthood. However, very few studies have comprehensively explored their joint effect on diabetes risk.
So a US research team led by Dr. Lu Qi, Associate Professor of Nutrition and Epidemiology at Harvard School of Public Health and Associate Professor at Harvard Medical School, set out to assess the joint association of birth weight and established lifestyle risk factors in adulthood with type 2 diabetes.
Using data from three large ongoing trials, they tracked 149,794 healthy men and women for 20-30 years. Birth weight was recorded and detailed information on lifestyle habits and medical history was collected every two years.
Five lifestyle factors - diet, smoking, physical activity, alcohol consumption, and body mass index (BMI) - were used to calculate an unhealthy lifestyle score.
During follow-up, the team documented 11,709 new cases of type 2 diabetes.
They found consistent associations between low birth weight and risk of type 2 diabetes and between unhealthy lifestyle and risk of type 2 diabetes. They also found a significant interaction between birth weight and unhealthy lifestyle on risk of type 2 diabetes.
The attributable proportions of joint effect were 22% to lower birth weight alone, 59% to unhealthy lifestyle alone, and 17% to their interaction. This means that 17% of diabetes cases would occur if both lower birth weight and unhealthier lifestyle were present, but not if only one was present - implying that a some type 2 diabetes cases depend on both prenatal and later life factors.
This interaction also indicates that the public health consequences of unhealthy lifestyle would be larger in low birth weight populations, say the authors.
"In summary, we found that both low birth weight and unhealthy lifestyle were associated with a significantly higher risk of type 2 diabetes, and the effects of low birth weight combined with the unhealthy lifestyle score were more than the addition of the risks associated with each individual factor," say the authors.
"The findings suggest that most cases of type 2 diabetes cases could be prevented by the adoption of a healthier lifestyle, but simultaneous improvement of both prenatal and postnatal factors could further prevent additional cases," they conclude.
INFORMATION:
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
2015-07-22
A complex web of interactions between industry, advocacy organisations, and academia may be fuelling enthusiasm for calcium and vitamin D supplements to prevent and treat osteoporosis, despite evidence of lack of benefit, warn doctors in The BMJ this week.
Calcium and vitamin D are highly profitable treatments that are widely recommended for osteoporosis, despite increasing evidence contradicting the practice, write Andrew Grey and Mark Bolland from the University of Auckland.
Several therapies previously recommended for osteoporosis, such as oestrogen and fluoride, ...
2015-07-22
Doctors and medical students in India should stop wearing white coats, argues a doctor in The BMJ this week.
Edmond Fernandes, a postgraduate at Yenepoya Medical College in Mangalore, says evidence shows that long sleeved coats spread infection and lead to avoidable harm and cost to patients.
Although long sleeved white coats have traditionally been worn by doctors since the 19th century, we now know that white coats "harbour potential contaminants and contribute considerably to the burden of disease acquired in hospital by spreading infection," writes Fernandes.
He ...
2015-07-22
Boston, MA -- People who are a low weight at birth and have unhealthy habits as adults, such as eating nutritionally poor diets or smoking, may have a greater risk of developing type 2 diabetes than people born at an average weight who live similar lifestyles, according to a new study led by researchers from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. In the first study to comprehensively assess how early development interacts with adult behavior to influence type 2 diabetes risk, the researchers found that 18% of cases were attributable to the combined effect of low birth ...
2015-07-22
MADISON, Wis. - Savoring a beautiful sunset and the positive emotions associated with it can contribute to improved well-being, according to research. But why and how are some people better than others in keeping the feeling alive?
"It's important to consider not just how much emotion you experience, but also how long these emotions persist," says Aaron Heller, former graduate student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Center for Investigating Healthy Minds (CIHM) at the Waisman Center and current assistant professor of psychology at the University of Miami. "We're ...
2015-07-21
BOSTON - Advances in technology have spurred better outcomes for infants treated in neonatal intensive care units, but parents and physicians need to work together to avoid unnecessary and potentially harmful tests and treatments, according to new Choosing Wisely® recommendations developed by neonatologists at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) and published online in Pediatrics, the scientific journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP).
"Infant mortality has dropped dramatically over the past 50 years, with almost all of the impact resulting from ...
2015-07-21
In a survey of a diverse group of almost 250 young, low-income, inner-city pregnant and postpartum women, Johns Hopkins researchers have learned that more than 90 percent use smartphones or regular cellphones to give and get information.
In a report on the survey, published online in July in the Journal of Internet Medicine Research, the research team says the findings strongly confirm the potential of the devices as a desireable means of improving the health of those at risk for diabetes and other diseases during their childbearing years.
Cellphones stand out by far ...
2015-07-21
Compared to its celestial neighbours Venus and Mars, Earth is a pretty habitable place. So how did we get so lucky? A new study sheds light on the improbable evolutionary path that enabled Earth to sustain life.
The research, published this week in Nature Geoscience, suggests that Earth's first crust, which was rich in radioactive heat-producing elements such as uranium and potassium, was torn from the planet and lost to space when asteroids bombarded the planet early in its history. This phenomenon, known as impact erosion, helps explain a landmark discovery made ...
2015-07-21
Philadelphia, PA, July 21, 2015 - Wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the leading cause of severe vision loss in older individuals. AMD and other serious chronic eye problems that affect younger individuals result when fluid accumulates abnormally under or within the retina. A new study published in The American Journal of Pathology shows for the first time that the release of substances from mast cells may be a causal factor in this type of eye pathology, and inhibitors of this release may offer new ways to treat serous retinal detachment.
Mast cells are white ...
2015-07-21
Quantum theory is one of the great achievements of 20th century science, yet physicists have struggled to find a clear boundary between our everyday world and what Albert Einstein called the "spooky" features of the quantum world, including cats that could be both alive and dead, and photons that can communicate with each other across space instantaneously.
For the past 60 years, the best guide to that boundary has been a theorem called Bell's Inequality, but now a new paper shows that Bell's Inequality is not the guidepost it was believed to be, which means that as the ...
2015-07-21
July 2, 2015 - Feed and production input costs are the primary economic inputs of the cattle industry. As input costs increase, producers and cattle are asked to be more efficient to satisfy global food demands. Furthermore, the amount of land available for cattle production in the United States has decreased over the past 10 years. Improvements with marginal land and marginal-quality harvested feeds are being considered.
Three studies were recently published in the Journal of Animal Science that were highlighted at the Forages and Pastures Symposium at JAM in 2015 titled ...
LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:
[Press-News.org] Both birth weight and adult lifestyle influence diabetes risk
First study to assess joint effects of early and later life risks for type 2 diabetes
