Maternal hypertensive disorders during pregnancy: adaptive functioning and psychiatric and psychological problems of...

To study whether pre-eclampsia and hypertension without proteinuria during pregnancy are associated with adaptive functioning, and psychiatric and psychological problems, of older offspring.

Retrospective longitudinal cohort study.

Participants in the Helsinki Birth Cohort 1934-44 Study.

A cohort of 778 participants born after normotensive, pre-eclamptic, or hypertensive pregnancies, defined based on the mother's blood pressure and urinary protein measurements at maternity clinics and birth hospitals.

Pearson's chi-squared tests and multivariable logistic regression.

Achenbach System of Empirically Based Assessment Older Adult Self-Report scores, completed at age 69.3 years (SD 3.1 years).

Compared with offspring born after normotensive pregnancies, offspring born after pre-eclamptic pregnancies had increased odds of reporting total problems (aOR 4.00, 95%CI 1.64-9.77) and problems of particular concern to clinicians (critical items; aOR 5.28, 95%CI 1.87-14.96), as well as: anxious/depressed, functional impairment, memory, thought, and irritable/disinhibited problems on syndrome scales; depressive, somatic, and psychotic problems on Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders scales; and adjustment problems in relationship satisfaction with spouse/partner. Maternal hypertension without proteinuria was not consistently associated with adjustment and problems (total problems, aOR 1.08, 95%CI 0.75-1.57; critical items, aOR 1.58, 95%CI 0.91-2.72).

Maternal hypertensive disorders in pregnancy, during a period of expectant treatment, carry an increased risk of problems in adaptive functioning and mental wellbeing in the offspring seven decades later. Being the longest follow-up on transgenerational consequences of maternal hypertensive disorders reported thus far, our study points to the life-time increased risk of an adverse intrauterine environment.