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. 1987 Sep 19;295(6600):687-9.
doi: 10.1136/bmj.295.6600.687.

Is birth weight determined genetically?

R Carr-Hill  1 , D M Campbell, M H Hall, A Meredith
Affiliations

Is birth weight determined genetically?

R Carr-Hill et al. Br Med J (Clin Res Ed). .

Abstract

Birthweight correlations were analysed among 505 intergenerational pairs of first births to women aged 18-25 identified from a large obstetric data bank. After standardisation for fetal sex, maternal height, gestational age, and proteinuric pre-eclampsia residual correlations of between 0.1402 and 0.1725 were found, suggesting only a small genetic effect. It is concluded that genetic factors play only a small part in determining birth weight.

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References

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