Aims/hypothesis: Type 2 diabetes risk is associated with low birth weight, rapid weight gain during childhood, and shorter stature and lower circulating IGF-I levels in adults. The largest variations in growth rates occur during the first postnatal years. We hypothesised that early postnatal variations in height and weight gain and IGF-I levels may be associated with risk markers for adult disease.
Methods: We measured the fasting insulin sensitivity (Homeostasis model) and insulin secretion post-oral glucose (insulinogenic index 0-30 min) in 851 normal 8-year-old children from a prospective birth cohort. We examined associations between size at birth, postnatal weight gain and circulating IGF-I levels with insulin sensitivity and secretion at 8 years of age.
Results: Fasting insulin sensitivity at 8 years was closely related to current BMI (r= -0.33, p<0.0005). Lower insulin sensitivity and higher BMI and waist circumference were all predicted by greater weight gain between birth to 3 years of age (all p<0.0005); lower birth weight was associated with reduced insulin sensitivity only in the highest current BMI tertile ( r=0.17, p=0.006). In contrast, lower insulin secretion was related to smaller size at birth ( p=0.01), independent of postnatal weight gain and insulin sensitivity. Lower insulin secretion was also independently related to shorter stature at 8 years of age relative to parental height ( p=0.047) and with lower plasma IGF-I levels at 5 years of age ( n=252, p=0.004).
Conclusions/interpretation: Associations between lower birth weight and insulin resistance may be dependent on rapid weight gain during the early postnatal years. However, irrespective of postnatal weight gain, smaller size at birth, lower IGF-I levels and lower childhood height predicted reduced compensatory insulin secretion.