Children born in summer months tend to lead healthier lives as adults, new research says.
Following that lead, the researchers looked at data involving the growth and development of around 450,000 women and men from the results of the UK Biobank study. That study provides data on volunteers from the United Kingdom, with regard to their health and the development of diseases.
Analyzing the data, the team found that when babies were born in the months of June, July, and August, they were heavier at birth weight and grew taller when reaching adulthood, and that girls started puberty later than their counterparts born in other months, usually an indication that they will experience healthier lives as adults.
Some studies have identified a healthy birth weight as between 5.5 and 8.8 pounds. Those below 5.5 pounds at birth tend to be more prone to contract infections in the first few months of life that may lead to other problems such as learning disabilities and delayed development of motor skills. Earlier studies have shown that babies that are underweight at birth are 70 percent more like to experience health issues later in life.
And overweight babies are at a greater risk for developing leukemia compared to those in the healthy range, and tend to be at a greater risk of developing diabetes, obesity and metabolic syndrome later in their adult lives.
Something the study did not find is that summer-born children have better success in school work. That may be because those born in the last three months before the traditional beginning of the school year are almost one year younger than their classmates. Some earlier studies have shown that younger students do not have as much classroom success at the older students in the same class.
Dr. Perry said, “This is the first time puberty timing has been robustly linked to seasonality.” He went on to say the team was “surprised, and pleased, to see how similar the patterns were on birth weight and puberty timing. Our results show that birth month has a measurable effect on development and health, but more work is needed to understand the mechanisms behind this effect.”
Dr. Perry cautioned that the month of your birth is only one factor that can affect your later health. He adds, “There are hundreds of factors that determine your future health and there are millions of things that influence birth weight [and] height. This is one incremental factor of many that contribute to this.”
The research results have been published in the journal Heliyon.
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