Birth weight and social determinants in diabetes and hypertension

Response to Arredondo: Birth weight and social determinants in diabetes and hypertension

“…We appreciate the author's concern regarding the confounding effect of several factors, such as smoking habit, diseases during pregnancy, nutritional status of the mother, and socioeconomic status, and agree with the author that unhealthy lifestyles in adulthood may play an important role in the problems. There is strong evidence that the obesity and diabetes epidemics were triggered by social and economic development, which are associated with excess energy intake and reduced physical activity …”

“…We thank Dr Armando Arredondo for his response to our article evaluating the associations of birth weight with multiple anthropometric measurements and subsequent risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus and hypertension in Chinese adults …”

“…The author, based on the results from a prospective study in Mexico, noted that social determinants have the greatest consequences in the development of diabetes and hypertension in adults who were exposed prenatally to poor nutrition …”