Associations Between Fetal Growth and Self-Perceived Health Throughout Adulthood: A Co-twin Control Study.

ABSTRACT: The literature shows evidence for long-lasting effects of low birth weight (LBW) on many health outcomes, but little is known about effects on self-perceived health. Findings are mixed and studies are small, mostly focusing on LBW effects on health outcomes before adulthood. Further, as LBW and most health conditions including self-perceived health are partly heritable, associations between birth weight (BW) and adverse health outcomes may also be due to shared genetic as well as other (pre- and postnatal) unmeasured environmental influences. We explored LBW effects on self-perceived health in early and later adulthood using a very large and genetically informative sample of more than 50,000 Swedish twins. In addition, analyses within twin pairs (the co-twin control design) were used to ex

SUBMITTER: Mosing MA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4860031 | biostudies-literature | 2016 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature