Underweight newborns at greater risk of developing poor cardiorespiratory fitness later in life

Cardiorespiratory fitness is the ability of the body to supply oxygen to the muscles during sustained physical activity.

By: ANI | | Published: February 3, 2020 10:27 am

The infant, born on February 2, is the youngest person recorded as being diagnosed with the viru.© Shutterstock

A breakthrough study pointed out on one of the reasons for short breath among adults can be low weight at the time of birth. The study further advocates that newborns who are abnormally underweight, have higher chances of developing poor cardiorespiratory fitness later in life than their normal counterparts.

Given its implications for public health, there has been a growing interest in understanding the underlying causes of poor cardiorespiratory fitness. Researchers have identified both physical inactivity and genetic factors as important determinants. Preterm delivery, and the low birth weight associated with it, has also been linked to low cardiorespiratory fitness later in life. In this study, the researchers wanted to examine if low birth weights played a role in cardiorespiratory fitness in individuals born after a pregnancy of 37-41 weeks.

They followed more than 280,000 males from birth to military conscription at age 17-24 using Swedish population-based registers. At conscription, the men underwent a physical examination that included an evaluation of their maximal aerobic performance on a bicycle ergometer.

The researchers found that those born with higher birth weights performed significantly better on the cardiorespiratory fitness test. For every 450 grams of extra weight at birth, in a baby born at 40 weeks, the maximum work capacity on the bicycle increased by an average of 7.9 watts.

The association was stable across all categories of body mass index (BMI) in young adulthood and was largely similar in a subset analysis of more than 52,000 siblings, suggesting that BMI and shared genetic and environmental factors alone cannot explain the link between birth weight and cardiorespiratory fitness.

The researchers believe the findings are of significance to public health, seeing as about 15 percent of babies born globally weigh less than 2.5 kilos at birth and cardiorespiratory fitness has important implications for adult health.

Published : February 3, 2020 10:27 am

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