Research

Hormonal

Low birth weight (≤2.5 kg) is associated with higher adult fasting glucose, insulin, HOMA, and diabetes prevalence in women, and higher leptin levels and leptin-to-fat-mass ratio in both genders.

If you were born with low birth weight, you may have higher baseline leptin levels and insulin resistance compared to those born with normal weight, even if you are not overweight. This increases your risk for type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Focus on maintaining a healthy weight, regular physical activity, and monitoring blood sugar levels, as your body may be more sensitive to insulin resistance.

GoodSupportsHIGH confidence
Women with low birth weight (≤2.5 kg) had higher levels of fasting plasma glucose, insulin, HOMA, diabetes and metabolic syndrome... In both genders... an inverse association was found between leptin and birth weight categories... An inverse association was also found between reported birth weight and leptin to fat mass ratio
François R. Jornayvaz et al. · Cardiovascular Diabetology · 2016

Why this rating

Large population-based cross-sectional study (N=2546) with multivariate adjustments, though self-reported birth weight is a limitation.

Source

Low birth weight leads to obesity, diabetes and increased leptin levels in adults: the CoLaus study

François R. Jornayvaz et al. · Cardiovascular Diabetology · 2016

DOI 10.1186/s12933-016-0389-2

cross_sectional · n=2546Cited 307×
Read the paper
DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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