Aims: There is now substantial evidence to suggest that susceptibility to certain non-communicable diseases may be increased by early undernutrition. In rural Gambia, an annual hungry season reduces birth weight by 200-300 g and increases the prevalence of low birth weight (< 2500 g) from 11% to 24%. The aim of this study was to investigate whether fetal nutritional stress (using season of birth as a proxy measure for prenatal growth retardation) or early childhood malnutrition (using historical anthropometric records) had a residual influence on risk factors for cardiovascular disease in a cohort of rural Gambian adults.
Methods: Two hundred and nineteen adults (mean age = 35.8 years; mean body mass index = 21.3 kg/m2; women = 181) for whom month of birth and infant anthropometric records were available participated in this study. Risk factors for cardiovascular disease were measured.
Results: No differences were found between season of birth groups (hungry vs. harvest) and fasting measures of glucose, insulin, lipids, fibrinogen or cortisol, or against 30 and 120 min glucose and insulin levels following an oral glucose tolerance test, or blood pressure. Similarly, these risk factors for adult disease were not related to the subjects' weight-for-age as children.
Conclusions: Moderate-to-severe fetal and childhood malnutrition in rural Gambia caused no detectable impairment of the glucose/insulin axis, or of other cardiovascular disease risk factors in adults remaining lean and fit on a low-fat diet.