Unfavorable fetal development affects physical functioning at the age of 60 years

Low birth weight and slow growth progressing to greater body mass in pre-adolescence significantly increased the risk of poor physical functioning at the age of 60 years, a new Finnish study published in the American Journal of Epidemiology found.

- The risk of poor functioning was particularly high among those individuals whose birth weight was low but who had a high body mass index at 11 years of age, says Dr. Mikaela von Bonsdorff from the Gerontology Research Centre at the University of Jyväskylä.

Babies who are born thin lack muscle. This is a result of fetal development where an undernourished fetus secures the development of vital organs such as the brain at the expense of less important tissue such as muscle tissue, according to the Barker hypothesis.

The study by Dr. von Bonsdorff and her colleagues showed for the first time that the effect of unfavorable fetal development can be seen in physical functioning among people in their sixties.

This finding is disturbing, since fetal undernutrition is still prevalent both in Western and developing countries. At the same time obesity is rapidly increasing in all age groups.

In the present study, 1999 persons were assessed at age 60 years as part of the larger Helsinki Birth Cohort. Their birth and childhood growth data were extracted from medical records and matched with these data. The child welfare system established already in the 1920's in Finland enabled the collection of this unique dataset.