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Background: 

Prenatal and postnatal factors may have joint effects on cardiovascular health, and we aimed to assess the joint association of birth weight and ideal cardiovascular health metrics (ICVHMs) prospectively in adulthood with incident cardiovascular disease (CVD).

Methods: 

In the UK Biobank, 227,833 participants with data on ICVHM components and birth weight and without CVD at baseline were included. The ICVHMs included smoking, body mass index, physical activity, diet information, total cholesterol, blood pressure, and hemoglobin A1c. The Cox proportional hazards model was used to estimate the hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) in men and women.

Results: 

Over a median follow-up period of 13.0 years (2,831,236 person-years), we documented 17,477 patients with incident CVD. Compared with participants with birth weights of 2.5–4.0 kg, the HRs (95% CIs) of CVD among those with low birth weights was 1.08 (1.00–1.16) in men and 1.23 (1.16–1.31) in women. The association between having a birth weight <2.5 kg and CVD risk in men was more prominent for those aged <50 years than for those of older age (P for interaction = 0.026). Lower birth weight and non-ideal cardiovascular health metrics were jointly related to an increased risk of CVD. Participants with birth weights <2.5 kg and ICVHMs score 0–1 had the highest risk of incident CVD (HR [95% CI]: 3.93 [3.01–5.13] in men; 4.24 [3.33–5.40] in women). The joint effect (HR [95% CI]: 1.36 [1.17–1.58]) could be decomposed into 24.7% (95% CI: 15.0%–34.4%) for a lower birth weight, 64.7% (95% CI: 56.7%–72.6%) for a lower ICVHM score, and 10.6% (95% CI: 2.7%–18.6%) for their additive interaction in women.

Conclusions: 

Birth weight and ICVHMs were jointly related to CVD risk. Attaining a normal birth weight and ideal ICVHMs may reduce the risk of CVD, and a simultaneous improvement of both prenatal and postnatal factors could further prevent additional cases in women.