Relationship between birth weight and blood pressure in adolescence

Background. Several studies have found a relationship between small size at birth and high blood pressure (HBP). However, this association has not bee n fully evaluated in adolescence. The aim of the present study was to evalu ate the relation of birth weight (BW) to BP in adolescence, controlling for factors related to BP, to extrauterine environment, and to maternal risk o f fetal distress. Methods. In 1310 adolescents (ages 12-14 years), randomly selected from Tur in school children, we evaluated BP, heart rate (HR), weight, height, famil ial risk of hypertension, parental cultural level, BW, and maternal history of diseases during pregnancy. The BW-BP association was tested by using mu ltiple regression analysis and adjusting for the other variables mentioned above. The same analysis was done for the subgroup at high risk of fetal di stress. Results: The association between BW and BP was negative but weak when we ad justed for all confounders (= -0.07 in males; = -0.27 in females). The asso ciation was negative and became stronger after the inclusion of all confoun ders, particularly HR (= -3.92), in the group of children at high risk of f etal distress. Conclusions. Intrauterine environment, as reflected by BW, has little effec t on BP in early adolescence without concomitant maternal diseases or envir onmental conditions leading to severe placental hypoperfusion. (C) 1999 Ame rican Health Foundation and Academic Press.