Underweight babies more likely to develop type 2 diabetes more than a year earlier

Previous research has shown that people born weighing 2.7 kg (6 lbs) or less face an increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes (T2D) as adults. New research being presented at this year's European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) Annual Meeting in Barcelona, Spain (16-20 September) is the first study to show that babies born underweight are more likely to develop type 2 diabetes at a younger age (by more than one year) and have less severe obesity at the time of diabetes diagnosis with higher concentrations of HDL cholesterol (known as good cholesterol).