Low weight at birth is linked to children developing cardiovascular diseases later in life, according to a study with implications for planning interventions to help kids stay away from heart diseases as they grow up.
The study, published in the Journal of Developmental Origins of Health and Disease, looked at the 20,000 fifth-graders born in West Virginia in the US and discovered that if the children had a low weight at birth, they were more likely to exhibit cardiovascular risk factors at their current age.
The researchers from West Virginia University mentioned that low birth weight was linked to higher levels of 'bad' cholesterol and fat molecule triglyceride, along with lower levels of 'good' cholesterol," in the children.
Taken together, the study noted that these traits were risk factors for heart attack, stroke, peripheral artery disease, atherosclerosis, and other disorders.
"Previously it was thought that risk factors for cardiovascular diseases were only observed in adults because cardiovascular disease is mostly seen in adults," said co-author of the study Amna Umer.
However, Umer added that in the past few years, the risk factors are "observed in children as well."
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