Abstract

Objective: To quantify the direct and indirect effects of fetal (position in family, weight, and social class at birth), childhood (breast feeding, growth, infections, and social class in childhood, age at menarche), and adult life (social class, alcohol consumption, smoking, diet, reproductive history, exercise, hormone replacement therapy use), and adult size (height, weight) on bone health at age 49–51 years, as measured by bone mineral density, total scanned bone area of the hip and lumbar spine, and femoral neck shaft angle.

Design: Follow up study of the Newcastle thousand families birth cohort established in 1947.

Participants: 171 men and 218 women who attended for dual energy x ray absorptiometry scanning.

Main results: Fetal life explained around 6% of variation in adult bone mineral density for men, but accounted for less than 1% for women. Adult lifestyle, including effects mediated through adult weight accounted for over 10% of variation in density for men and around 6% for women. Almost half of variation in bone area for men was explained by early life. However, most of this was mediated through achieved adult height and weight. In women, less than 5% of variation in bone area was accounted for by early life, after adjusting for adult size. Most of the variation in each of the indicators for both sexes was contributed either directly or indirectly by adult lifestyle and achieved adult height and weight.

Conclusions: The effect of fetal life on bone health in adulthood seems to be mediated through achieved adult height.