"These factors can put a person at higher risk for heart disease and other health problems. "

""Most small premature infants live healthy lives as adults," said study lead author Dr. Eero Kajantie, a pediatrician and senior researcher at the National Public Health Institute in Helsinki, Finland. "However, our findings indicate that they might be at a higher-than-average risk of common late-life disorders such as type 2 (adult) diabetes or cardiovascular disease." "

"The goods news is that the risk of developing these problems can be reduced with a healthy lifestyle, one that incorporates physical activity and a healthy diet and maintaining a normal weight, Kajantie added. "

"Researchers have already established a link between small size at birth and glucose-regulation problems later in life. There is also a known association between preterm birth with very low birth weight and insulin resistance in childhood. "

"And research has shown that full-term babies with low birth weight have a higher risk of health problems such as hypertension, cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes when they reach young adulthood. "

"The question is whether insulin resistance, and therefore an elevated risk for various diseases, persists into adulthood in babies born premature and underweight. "

"The issue is a highly relevant one, given that advances in neonatal intensive care have drastically changed the prognosis for very-low-birth-weight infants. According to an accompanying editorial in the journal, in 1960, a baby born weighing 1,000 grams (2.2 pounds) had a 95 percent risk of dying. Today, that same child has as 95 percent chance of surviving. "

"As the new study noted, the first generation of infants who benefited from these improvements is now entering adulthood. "

"For the study, the researchers performed standard oral glucose tolerance tests in 163 young adults aged 18 to 27 who had been underweight at birth. They also performed the same tests in 169 people who had been born
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