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Birth Weight Summary Data (2019)

We are releasing the summary data from our genome-wide meta-analyses of birth weight, combining data from the EGG consortium and the full release of the UK Biobank data (released May 2017). Data from the EGG consortium were imputed up to the 1000 Genomes Project (Phase 1 v3) reference panel and data from the UK Biobank were imputed up to the HRC reference panel.

Four genome-wide association meta-analyses were conducted (see paper for full details):

  1. Own birth weight: this is the individuals own genetic effect on their own birth weight

  2. Offspring birth weight: this is the maternal genetic effect on offspring birth weight

  3. Fetal effect: this is the individuals own genetic effect on their own birth weight, after adjusting for the correlated maternal genotype

  4. Maternal effect: this is the mother's genetic effect on offspring birth weight, after adjusting for the correlated offspring's genotype

All birth weight measures were z-score transformed prior to analysis. The association between each genetic variant and the birth weight measures was tested using linear regression in the EGG consortium and a linear mixed model in the UK Biobank, with adjustment for gestational age where available (only available in <15% of the sample) and study specific covariates (where appropriate).

Summary files provide information on chromosome, genomic position (NCBI build 37), rsID, effect allele, other allele, effect allele frequency, beta, standard error, P value, heterogeneity P value and sample size at approximately 15 million variants passing quality control.

Dataset Details

We have six sets of summary files:

  1. European-only meta-analysis of own birth weight in up to 298,142 individuals; the data as a gzipped text file can be downloaded here.

  2. Trans-ancestry meta-analysis of own birth weight in up to 321,223 individuals; the data as a gzipped text file can be downloaded here.

  3. European-only meta-analysis of offspring birth weight in up to 210,267 individuals; the data as a gzipped text file can be downloaded here.

  4. Trans-ancestry meta-analysis of offspring birth weight in up to 230,069 individuals; the data as a gzipped text file can be downloaded here.

  5. European-only meta-analysis of the fetal effect in up to 297,356 individuals with their own birth weight and 210,248 individuals with offspring birth weight (101,541 individuals had both their own and their offspring's birth weight); the data as a gzipped text file can be downloaded here.

  6. European-only meta-analysis of the maternal effect in up to 297,356 individuals with their own birth weight and 210,248 individuals with offspring birth weight (101,541 individuals had both their own and their offspring's birth weight); the data as a gzipped text file can be downloaded here.

Acknowledging The Data

When using data from the downloadable meta-analyses results please acknowledge the source of the data as follows:

Data on birth weight has been contributed by the EGG Consortium using the UK Biobank Resource and has been downloaded from www.egg-consortium.org

In addition to the above acknowledgement, please cite the paper below:

Maternal and fetal genetic effects on birth weight and their relevance to cardio-metabolic risk factors.

Warrington NM, Beaumont RN, Horikoshi M, Day FR, Helgeland O, et al.

Nature Genetics 2019 doi:10.1038/s41588-019-0403-1