PRENATAL AND POSTNATAL FACTORS IN PREDICTING LATER BLOOD-PRESSURE AMONG CHILDREN - CARDIOVASCULAR RISK IN YOUNG FINNS

A negative correlation between birth weight and subsequent blood press ure has been reported, but in some studies this correlation has not be en found. We analyzed the effect of birth weight and pubertal developm ent and several pre- and postnatal factors on Subsequent blood pressur e among 2500 children and adolescents in a follow-up study with three surveys conducted with 3-y intervals. The correlations between birth w eight and systolic blood pressure varied from -0.04 to 0.02 among the female subjects and from -0.05 to -0.04 among the male subjects in eac h survey. A somewhat stronger relation was found among the postpuberta l female and male subjects (correlation coefficient -0.09 and -0.05) i n the last survey, When adjusted for weight, the correlations became n egative and more often significant. The decrease in the adjusted mean systolic blood pressure was about 2 mm Hg when birth weight increased from the lowest to the highest tertile. Other factors affecting systol ic blood pressure were current age (mean change up to 1.8 mm Hg/y) and weight (mean change up to 1.2 mm Hg/kg), the duration of breast feedi ng over 3 mo (mean change up to -6.5 mm Hg), and a birth rank order ov er four (mean change up to 5.0 mm Hg) presented as the mean difference from the baseline. According to the multiple regression analysis, a h istory of mother's high blood pressure during pregnancy (p < 0.05) pre dicted future blood pressure more eminently than birth weight. In conc lusion, our results based on healthy children and adolescents offer su pport for the theory of low birth weight as a predicting factor for fu ture blood pressure, However, other pre- and postnatal factors seem to be important as well.