About the Authors

John Macleod

* Email: john.macleod@bristol.ac.uk

Affiliations School of Social and Community Medicine, University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom, Department of Primary Care and General Practice, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, United Kingdom

Lie Tang

Affiliation Department of Primary Care and General Practice, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, United Kingdom

F. D. Richard Hobbs

Affiliation Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom

Brian Wharton

Affiliation Institutes of Child Health, University of London and University of Birmingham, London and Birmingham, United Kingdom

Roger Holder

Affiliation Department of Primary Care and General Practice, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, United Kingdom

Shakir Hussain

Affiliation Department of Primary Care and General Practice, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, United Kingdom

Linda Nichols

Affiliation Department of Primary Care and General Practice, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, United Kingdom

Paul Stewart

Affiliation Centre for Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, United Kingdom

Penny Clark

Affiliation Department of Clinical Biochemistry, University Hospital Birmingham, Birmingham, United Kingdom

Steve Luzio

Affiliation College of Medicine, Swansea University, Swansea, United Kingdom

Jeff Holly

Affiliation School of Clinical Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom

George Davey Smith

Affiliation School of Social and Community Medicine, University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: JM FDRH BW PS GDS. Performed the experiments: JM LT. Analyzed the data: RH SH LN. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: PC SL JH. Wrote the manuscript: JM LT FDRH BW RH SH LN PS PC SL JH GDS. Advised on and supervised laboratory assays of insulin resistance and insulin like growth factors: PC SL JH. Designed and conducted the original Sorrento studies: BW.