Children that are born small may suffer from a genetic problem that also causes their fathers to develop diabetes, according to a major UK research project.
The findings are among the first to emerge from the UK Biobank, which involves some 250,000 adults.
Researchers linked low birth weight children to their fathers developing type 2 diabetes, a condition often linked to obesity and unhealthy lifestyles.
Reporting in the International Journal of Epidemiology, the researchers say they believe there is also a genetic link.
This would mean the same genes that can trigger diabetes also play a part in babies being of low birth weight.
Researcher Dr Jessica Tyrrell, of the University of Exeter Medical School, said: "Using such a large amount of data has allowed us to be very confident in our conclusions.
"The finding that parent and offspring diabetes could be genetically linked has important implications for current treatments which aim to increase birth weight to help prevent the onset of the disease, suggesting they may be ineffective."
Parental diabetes and birthweight in 236 030 individuals in the UK Biobank Study. Int. J. Epidemiol. 11 December 2013; doi:10.1093/ije/dyt220 [abstract]
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