Objectives: To examine the relation between fetal growth and cognitive function in adult life. Design: A follow up study of men and women whose birth weights and other measurements of body size had been recorded at birth. Setting: Hertfordshire, Preston, and Sheffield. Subjects: 1576 men and women born in Hertfordshire, Sheffield, or Preston between 1920 and 1943. Main outcome measures: Intelligence quotient as measured by the AH4 test and amount of decline in cognitive function with age as estimated by the difference between score on the Mill Hill vocabulary test and score on the AH4 test. Results: Score on the intelligence test was higher in people who had a large biparietal head diameter at birth, but it was not related to any other measure of body size or proportions. No association was found between decline in cognitive function and any measure of size or proportions at birth. Conclusion: Impaired fetal growth was not associated with poorer cognitive performance in adult life. Adaptations made by the fetus in response to conditions that retard its growth seem to be largely successful in maintaining brain development. Key messages In humans, low birth weight and proportionate smallness at birth have been associated with poorer cognitive function in early childhood, but there have been few studies on whether this association persists into adult life There was no relation between body size or pro- portions at birth and either intelligence or cognitive decline related to age in over 1500 people aged between 48 and 74 years whose birth measurements had been recorded Fetal growth seems to be less important than genetic factors and environmental influences in postnatal life in determining adult cognitive performance Adaptations made by the fetus in response to conditions that retard its growth may be largely successful in maintaining brain development

Hip fracture is the most significant complication of osteoporosis in terms of mortality, long-term disability and decreased quality of life. In the recent years, different techniques have been developed to assess lower limb strength and ultimately fracture risk. Here we examine relationships between two measures of lower limb bone geometry and strength; proximal femoral geometry and tibial peripheral quantitative computed tomography. We studied a sample of 431 women and 488 men aged in the range 59–71 years. The hip structural analysis (HSA) programme was employed to measure the structural geometry of the left hip for each DXA scan obtained using a Hologic QDR 4500 instrument while pQCT measurements of the tibia were obtained using a Stratec 2000 instrument in the same population. We observed strong sex differences in proximal femoral geometry at the narrow neck, intertrochanteric and femoral shaft regions. There were significant (p < 0.001) associations between pQCT-derived measures of bone geometry (tibial width; endocortical diameter and cortical thickness) and bone strength (strength strain index) with each corresponding HSA variable (all p < 0.001) in both men and women. These results demonstrate strong correlations between two different methods of assessment of lower limb bone strength: HSA and pQCT. Validation in prospective cohorts to study associations of each with incident fracture is now indicated.