Published Online
on October 11, 2004

A more recent version of this article appeared on October 19, 2004

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Submitted on October 2, 2003
Revised on May 20, 2004
Accepted on June 10, 2004

Associations of Parental, Birth, and Early Life Characteristics With Systolic Blood Pressure at 5 Years of Age. Findings From the Mater-University Study of Pregnancy and Its Outcomes

Debbie A. Lawlor PhD, MSc, MBChB^*, Jake M. Najman PhD, BA, Jonathan Sterne PhD, BSc, Gail M. Williams PhD, BSc, Shah Ebrahim Dm, MSc, FFPHM, and George Davey Smith DSc, MD, FFPHM

From the Department of Social Medicine (D.A.L., J.S., S.E., G.D.S.), University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom; School of Social Science (J.M.N.), University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia; and School of Population Health (J.M.N., G.M.W.), University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia.

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: d.a.lawlor{at}bristol.ac.uk.

Background--We examined the associations of a range of parental and early life characteristics with systolic blood pressure at 5 years of age.

Methods and Results--Information from 3864 children who were followed up prospectively from their mother’s first antenatal clinic assessment was used. Maternal age, body mass index, and smoking during pregnancy were all positively associated with offspring systolic blood pressure at 5 years of age. The systolic blood pressure of children whose mothers had smoked throughout pregnancy was on average 0.92 mm Hg (95% CI 0.17 to 1.68) greater than that of children whose mothers had never smoked, after full adjustment. Children who had been breast fed until at least 6 months had lower systolic blood pressure than those who were breast fed for a shorter duration. Paternal body mass index and child’s weight, height, and body mass index were all positively associated with blood pressure at age 5.

Conclusions--Because childhood blood pressure tracks into adulthood, interventions aimed at early life risk factors, such as quitting smoking during pregnancy, breast feeding, and prevention of obesity in all family members, may be important for reducing the population distribution of blood pressure and thus cardiovascular disease risk.

Key words: blood pressure • child • etiology • smoking • breast feeding

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Circulation 2004 110: 2277. [Extract] [Full Text]

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