Birth weight is associated with brain tissue volumes seven decades later but not with MRI markers of brain ageing.

ABSTRACT: Birth weight, an indicator of fetal growth, is associated with cognitive outcomes in early life (which are predictive of cognitive ability in later life) and risk of metabolic and cardiovascular disease across the life course. Brain health in older age, indexed by MRI features, is associated with cognitive performance, but little is known about how variation in normal birth weight impacts on brain structure in later life. In a community dwelling cohort of participants in their early seventies we tested the hypothesis that birth weight is associated with the following MRI features: total brain (TB), grey matter (GM) and normal appearing white matter (NAWM) volumes; whiter matter hyperintensity (WMH) volume; a general factor of fractional anisotropy (gFA) and peak width skeletonised mean dif

SUBMITTER: Wheater E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8358699 | biostudies-literature | 2021

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature