Intergenerational Studies of Human Birthweight From the 1958 Birth Cohort. 1. Evidence for a Multigenerational Effect

Abstract

Objective To ascertain whether maternal twinning influences the previously described association between the birthweight of singleton mothers and their infants. Design and subjects The association between the birthweight of singleton parents and their offspring and that between twin parents and their offspring was compared using data from the 23‐year‐old sample of the 1958 British national birth cohort. The numbers available for full comparison were 1027 female and 611 male singleton cohort members, and 26 female and 17 male twin cohort members and their first singleton livebirths. Results Of the mothers who had been twins, half had been of low birthweight, and overall their mean weight was 700 g less than that of their singleton counterparts. Nevertheless, the mean birthweight of babies of twin mothers was 133 g, and of twin fathers 94 g, greater than of babies of corresponding singletons. For female, but not male, parents this difference persisted after adjustment for confounding variables. Conclusions We suggest two possible reasons for the difference between the weight of babies of twin and singleton mothers. Firstly, the growth of twins becomes retarded late in pregnancy, possibly after a period critical in determining long‐term reproductive effects. Secondly, the twin survivors were of higher birthweight than the original twin cohort, whilst the singleton survivors were more representative of all singleton births, thus introducing a possible bias.

Trends in human birth weight across two successive generations

“…While intergenerational effects on human BW have been extensively studied in developed nations, [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][18][19][20][21] there is a paucity of data from developing countries. 17,22 Strengths of the present study were a large sample size, birth data were collected prospectively for the parental cohort (for whom birth measurements were taken by trained research staff), birth data of the offspring were obtained only from reliable hospital records (rather than recall) and we had good data on potential confounding factors such as parental age, height, weight, sex of infant, birth order and SES.…”

“…The father's contribution is mainly genetic [6][7][8][9][10][11]22 ,although it must be remembered that the father also contributes to the environment of the mother, economically and materially, in ways that may not be captured by relatively crude measures of SES. After adjusting for confounding factors, it was found that a LBW father was at a 2.2 times greater risk of begetting a LBW offspring than a father weighing >3000 g at birth.…”

“…[3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21] Only one such study has been published from an Indian population. 22 A high correlation was found between maternal and offspring BW to the tune of an increment in BW of 15 -30 g for every 100 g increase in maternal BW.…”

“…Paternal BW as a determinant of offspring BW has been less well studied. [6][7][8][9][10][11] Paternal and fetal genes regulating intrauterine growth have been described. [23][24][25][26][27] Therefore, a father could also regulate fetal growth, depending on Abbreviations LBW : low birth weight BW : birth weight SES : socio-economic status the regulation of genetic expression by intrauterine environment.…”

Study of the relationship between variants near CCNL1/LEKR1 and in ADCY5 with low birth weight in a Chinese population

“…However, there are well-documented observations that birth weight is one of multiple etiological traits that are affected by environmental factors as well as the genetic disposition of the fetus and mother (Järvelin et al 1997;Klebanoff et al 1998;Knight et al 2005;Kramer 1987). The importance of genetic factors in determining birth weight was demonstrated by a twin and family study (Clausson et al 2000;Emanuel et al 1992;Klebanoff et al 1989;Magnus 1984). Many of the numerous birth weightassociated genes identified in previous studies are related to factors that affect non-insulin-dependent diabetes, such as mutations in the fetal insulin secretion reducing genes (e.g., INS, INSR, IPF1ABCC8, HNF1B), and these factors have been shown to have an effect on birth weight (Babenko et al 2006;Edghill et al 2006;Hattersley and Tooke 1999;Støy et al 2007).…”