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TUESDAY, July 1, (News Locale) - The weight of babies at birth has been shown to play a vital role in the risk of developing diseases like diabetes in adult life. A large study has now linked heavy birthweight to an increased risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis in adult life.
Babies with birthweight of over 10 pounds face double the risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis when they are adults as compared to their normal weight peers, the study said. Researchers at the Hospital for Special Surgery, New York City arrived at this conclusion after analyzing data on 87,000 women who took part in the U.S. Nurses' Health Study.
Previous studies have linked low birth weight to an increased risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus, coronary heart disease and hypertension. However this is the first study to link heavy birthweight to arthritis.
The Nurses Health Study is the largest of its kind in the United States and began in 1976. At that time the nurses were asked to answer a biennial questionnaire relating to their health status, lifestyle, family medical history and health practices. Women who had cancer were excluded from this study.
The study included only those women who were able to answer a 1992 survey related to their birthweight. The researchers found 619 of 87,077 individuals who answered the survey developed rheumatoid arthritis.
On further analysis it emerged women having a birthweight in excess of 4.54 kg or 10 pounds had double the risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis as compared to people whose birthweight was below this mark.
The details of the study appear online in advance of print in the Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases.
According to the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases, about 2.1 million people, or between 0.5 and 1 percent of the U.S. adult population, have rheumatoid arthritis, the background information provided in the article says.
Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is an autoimmune disease where the body's own antibodies attack joints taking them to be foreign tissue. RA can also affect other parts of the body, such as the linings of heart and lungs.
The disease causes pain, swelling, stiffness, and loss of function in the joints on both sides of the body. The main aim of therapy is to reduce pain and alter lifestyle so as to make it easy to handle day to day tasks.
There is no clear cause of RA, but as the above study says, birthweight may play an important role.
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