[Physical development and health status of young men in relation to birth weight].

The aim of the study was to examine the influence of low birth weight (LBW) on the health characteristics of men of post-pubertal age compared with their normal-birth-weight (NBW) peers. To this end, 1090 conscripts, out of 1376 eligible male neonates examined in 6 Warsaw obstetric wards in 1970-1974 in search of low birth weight (682 LBW vs. 408 NBW), were examined in 1998 at the entry to the military service. It was found that LBW conscripts were shorter and lighter than their NBW peers. They also had more overall recorded health problems, more hearing defects, and more neurological disorders than their counterparts with normal birth weight two decades earlier.