No abstract

Recent data indicate that low-birthweight adults are at a higher risk than their high-birthweight peers of developing ischaemic heart disease or a cluster of conditions known as the IRS, which includes dys-lipidaemias, hypertension, unfavourable body fat distribution and NIDDM. Thus far these observations have been limited to Caucasians from the United Kingdom. We extended these observations to a broader segment of the general population by studying the association of birthweight and adult health outcomes in a biethnic population of the United States. We divided a group of 564 young adult Mexican-American and non-Hispanic white men and women participants of the S an Antonio Heart Study into tertiles of birthweight and compared metabolic, anthropometric, haemodynamic, and demographic characteristics across these tertile categories. Additionally, we studied birthweight as a pre-dictor of the clustering of diseases associated with the IRS, defined as any two or more of the following conditions: hypertension, NIDDM or impaired glucose tolerance, dyslipidaemia. Normotensive, non-diabetic individuals whose birthweight was in the lowest tertile had significantly higher levels of fasting serum insulin and a more truncal fat deposition pattern than individuals whose birthweight was in the highest tertile, independently of sex, ethnicity, and current socioeconomic status. Also, the odds of expressing the IRS increased 1.72 times (95% confidence interval: 1.16-2.55) for each tertile decrease in birthweight. These findings were independent of sex, ethnicity, and current levels of socioeconomic status or obesity. In conclusion, low birthweight could be a major independent risk factor for the development of adult chronic conditions commonly associated with insulin resistance in the general population. [Diabetologia (1994) 37: 624-631]

Among other foci, recent research on adaptation to climatic variability and change has sought to evaluate the merit of adaptation generally, as well as the suitability of particular adaptations. Additionally, there is a need to better understand the likely uptake of adaptations. For example, diversification is one adaptation that has been identified as a potential farm-level response to climatic variability and change, but its adoption by farmers for this reason is not well understood. This paper serves two purposes. The first is to document the adoption of crop diversification in Canadian prairie agriculture for the period 1994-2002, reflect upon its strengths and limitations for managing a variety of risks, including climatic ones, and gauge its likely adoption by producers in response to anticipated climate change. The second purpose is to draw on this case to refine our current understanding of climate change adaptation more generally. Based upon data from over 15 000 operations, it was determined that individual farms have become more specialized in their cropping patterns since 1994, and this trend is unlikely to change in the immediate future, notwithstanding anticipated climate change and the known risk-reducing benefits of crop diversification. More broadly, the analysis suggests that 'suitable' and even 'possible' climate change adaptations need to be more rigorously assessed in order to understand their wider strengths and limitations.

No abstract

SummaryRecent data indicate that low-birthweight adults are at a higher risk than their high-birthweight peers of developing ischaemic heart disease or a cluster of conditions known as the IRS, which includes dyslipidaemias, hypertension, unfavourable body fat distribution and NIDDM. Thus far these observations have been limited to Caucasians from the United Kingdom. We extended these observations to a broader segment of the general population by studying the association of birthweight and adult health outcomes in a biethnic population of the United States. We divided a group of 564 young adult Mexican-American and nonHispanic white men and women participants of the S an Antonio Heart Study into tertiles of birthweight and compared metabolic, anthropometric, haemodynamic, and demographic characteristics across these tertile categories. Additionally, we studied birthweight as a predictor of the clustering of diseases associated with the IRS, defined as any two or more of the following conditions: hypertension, NIDDM or impaired glucose tolerance, dyslipidaemia. Normotensive, non-diabetic individuals whose birthweight was in the lowest tertile had significantly higher levels of fasting serum insulin and a more truncal fat deposition pattern than individuals whose birthweight was in the highest tertile, independently of sex, ethnicity, and current socioeconomic status. Also, the odds of expressing the IRS increased 1.72 times (95% confidence interval: 1.16-2.55) for each tertile decrease in birthweight. These findings were independent of sex, ethnicity, and current levels of socioeconomic status or obesity. In conclusion, low birthweight could be a major independent risk factor for the development of adult chronic conditions commonly associated with insulin resistance in the general population. [Diabetologia (1994) 37: 624-631]