Dad's Diabetes and Birth Weight

Researchers in England recently found that, among the more than 8000 parents they studied, the children of fathers with diabetes were born weighing an average of 6.5 ounces less than those whose fathers did not have diabetes.

Because fathers cannot affect birth weight by food consumption or exercise (unlike mothers), ?the link with fathers? diabetes can only plausibly be genetic,? the investigators concluded.

The findings thus support the hypothesis that common genetic factors contribute to both type 2 diabetes risk and poorer pre-natal growth.

The results of this study were published in the January 4, 2003, issue of the British Medical Journal.