Small size at birth and later diabetic pregnancy.

Abstract

To determine whether small size at birth was associated with an increased risk of diabetes in pregnancy. Linked birth cohorts were evaluated: that of women born at 37-44 weeks' gestation in 1974, and that of their offspring born 1995-1996, at which time birth certificate data included a checkbox for maternal diabetes. The risk for diabetes was calculated for both a small for gestational age (SGA) group, defined as less than the tenth percentile for gestational age, and an appropriate for gestational age (AGA) group. The relative risk for diabetes in pregnancy among the group that had been small at birth was 3.6 compared with the larger group. This was significant at the P < .001 level. A woman's risk of diabetes during pregnancy is increased if she herself was small at birth.