Premature Birth and Insulin Resistance

The path toward type 2 diabetes appears to begin early in childhood. A newreport from a group of New Zealand researchers suggests that children who areborn prematurely tend to have a reduction in insulin sensitivity—a riskfactor for type 2 diabetes—years later.

Paul L. Hoffman, MB, ChB, and colleagues at the University of Aucklandstudied 72 healthy prepubescent children, 4 to 10 years old, 50 of whom wereborn prematurely at 32 weeks of gestation or less. Thirty-eight of thepreemies had a birth weight appropriate for gestational age, and 12 were smallfor their age.

Investigators measured insulin sensitivity with insulin and glucose dataderived from glucose-tolerance tests. The group found that children who wereborn prematurely had insulin sensitivity lower than control subjects,regardless of whether they were small for their gestationalage.

Like full-term infants who are small for their age, according toresearchers, premature babies may be at increased risk of subsequent type 2diabetes.