London (PTI): British scientists have started a major study in collaboration with a Pune hospital to explore the link between low birth weight and diseases in later life in India.

Experts at the University of Southampton have started examining the impact of low birth weight and infant weight that may have on the development of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular diseases in adult life.

This is the latest stage of a study of 400 children born in the King Edward Memorial (KEM) Hospital in Pune.

The result of the study is likely to resolve some of the uncertainties about the causes of chronic illness, offering nutritional information relevant to both developing and industrialised countries as a means of preventing chronic later-life disease.

The youngsters, who all are 21, have been monitored throughout childhood and adolescence using blood tests, body composition measurements and tests for diabetes and this the first time they have been studied as adults.

As the study progresses, the findings will be related back to birth size, infant growth and nutritional diet. With female subjects, an ultrasound will also be used to check for polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), a complex condition that affects the ovaries and is a leading cause of infertility.

University sources said that relatively little data was available from developing countries, where long-term record keeping of birth weight data has not been a high priority.

Such countries are considered to be at the greatest risk from the mismatch of early nutritional deprivation and later nutritional affluence.

The study is co-ordinated by Chittaranjan Yajnik and Anand Pandit at the KEM Hospital, Pune and Professor Caroline Fall from the MRC Epidemiology Resource Centre at the University of Southampton.