MATERNAL FACTORS AND DEVELOPMENT OF CARDIOVASCULAR RISK - EVIDENCE FROM A STUDY OF BLOOD-PRESSURE IN CHILDREN

It has been suggested that risks of hypertension and cardiovascular di sease begin in utero and that maternal nutrition plays an important ro le. We have examined the relation between maternal factors and BP in a study of 1,311 children in which physical measurements at 9-11 years of age have been linked to a parental questionnaire; birth record data were also available in a subsample of 662 children. Maternal height w as inversely related to childhood BP after adjustment for the child's current height. However, several social factors related to maternal nu trition in pregnancy in earlier studies (including social class, housi ng tenure, maternal educational attainment and maternal smoking in pre gnancy) showed weak and inconsistent relations with BP at 9-11 years. Minimum maternal haemoglobin in pregnancy and change in mean corpuscul ar volume in pregnancy (identified as potentially important markers of maternal nutrition in earlier studies) showed no consistent relations hips either with placental weight to birthweight ratio or with childho od BP, although both factors showed strong inverse associations with b irthweight. The association between maternal height and childhood BP m ay reflect the influence of early life factors on cardiovascular risk. However, the absence of consistent relationships between social facto rs and BP in off spring provides little support for the possibility th at maternal diet is an important influence on cardiovascular risk fact ors in childhood. Minimum maternal haemoglobin and change in maternal mean corpuscular volume are unlikely to be specific markers of materna l nutrition in pregnancy. More specific hypotheses relating maternal n utrition to the development of cardiovascular risk in offspring are re quired.