Prenatal and childhood growth, and hospitalization for alcohol use disorders in adulthood: the Helsinki birth cohort study

Abstract

Background: Small birth size - an indicator of a sub-optimal prenatal environment - and variation in growth after birth have been associated with non-communicable diseases in later life. We tested whether birth size or growth in childhood associated with the risk of hospital admission for alcohol use disorders (AUDs) from early to late adulthood.

Methods: The sample comprised 6544 men and 6050 women born between 1934 and 1944 in Helsinki, Finland. Data on anthropometric measures were extracted from medical records and diagnoses of AUD from the Finnish Hospital Discharge Register and Causes of Death Register covering a 40-year period from 1969 to 2008.

Results: Altogether 171 women (2.8%) and 657 men (10.0%) were diagnosed at a hospital with AUD. After adjusting for major confounders, shorter length at birth, shorter height up to two years of age, and lower weight at two years associated with hospitalization for AUD in women. In men, slower growth in height, particularly from 2 to 7 years, and slower weight gain from 7 to 11 years as well as shorter height and lower weight at 7 and 11 years associated with a diagnosis of AUD in men.

Conclusions: Pre- and postnatal growth associates with the risk for AUD later in life differently in women than in men: the fetal period and infancy seem to be the sensitive periods for women, whereas those for men the occur from toddlerhood onwards.

Figure 1. Trajectories of height (blue line), weight (red line), and BMI (green line) in those who were hospitalized for alcohol use disorder in adulthood.

The mean values for height, weight and BMI of the monthly measures from birth to 2 years, and the yearly measures from 6 to 11 years, are set at zero with deviations from the mean expressed as standard deviations (z scores).