Female newborns with a heavy birth weight have double the risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis in later life than babies of average weight, new research suggests.

Findings published ahead of print in the Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases support the understanding that certain diseases in adulthood stem back to prenatal development.

Previous studies have shown that high birth weight can be linked to increased risk of breast cancer and leukaemia.

In a study of more than 87,000 women aged between 30 and 55, those with a birth weight of over 4.54kg were twice as likely to develop rheumatoid arthritis as women who weighed the average weight of between 3.2 and 3.85kg at birth.

Based on the speculative results of the study, the researchers propose further investigation into the possibility of reducing the risk of the autoimmune disease during pregnancy by making alterations to the mother's diet.

This is not the first report to link adult diseases and conditions to high or low birth weight. Studies have also suggested that a low birth weight can increase the risk of diabetes, coronary heart disease and high blood pressure.

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