Table 3.

Hazard ratios (with 95% confidence intervals) and numbers for cases for coronary heart disease by category of birth weight and updated adult body mass index, adjusted for age and updated smoking status, nurses' health study, 1976-2000

	Adult BMI centile
Birth weight in kg (centile)	>11th	11th-42nd	43rd-87th	≥87th	Hazard ratio per unit BMI
<2.50 (<11th)	0.54 (6)	0.88 (22)	1.17 (49)	3.62 (45)	1.12 (1.08 to 1.15)
2.50≤3.18 (11th≤42nd)	0.89 (45)	0.79 (101)	1.29 (255)	1.81 (89)	1.05 (1.04 to 1.07)
3.19≤3.86 (43rd≤87th)	0.74 (46)	0.72 (125)	1.00* (315)	1.67 (156)	1.06 (1.04 to 1.07)
≥3.87 (≥87th)	0.77 (15)	0.70 (39)	0.79 (87)	1.62 (60)	1.06 (1.04 to 1.09)
Hazard ratio per kg birth weight	1.04 (0.73 to 1.48)	0.89 (0.72 to 1.11)	0.77 (0.67 to 0.88)	0.70 (0.58 to 0.85)	—

Birthweight percentiles were determined by the categorical birthweight question boundaries. Adult BMI percentile groups were created to correspond to the birthweight percentile groups.

BMI=body mass index.

^*Reference value.