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Maternal nutritional status in pregnancy and blood pressure in childhood
K M Godfrey1, T Forrester, D J Barker
1MRC Environmental Epidemiology Unit (Southampton University), Southampton General Hospital, UK.
Insights
Maternal nutrition during pregnancy impacts child blood pressure. Lower maternal hemoglobin and thinner skinfolds are linked to higher blood pressure in children aged 10-12.
Area of Science:
- Nutritional science
- Pediatric health
- Maternal-fetal medicine
Background:
- Maternal nutrition during pregnancy is crucial for fetal development.
- Nutritional deficiencies in mothers may have long-term health consequences for offspring.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the association between maternal nutritional status during pregnancy and children's blood pressure.
- To determine if maternal hemoglobin, skinfold thickness, and body weight predict offspring blood pressure at 10-12 years of age.
Main Methods:
- A prospective follow-up study involving 77 children in Kingston, Jamaica.
- Maternal nutritional indices (hemoglobin, skinfold thickness, body weight) were recorded during pregnancy.
- Children's blood pressure was measured at 10-12 years of age.
Main Results:
- Lower maternal hemoglobin concentration during pregnancy was associated with increased systolic blood pressure in offspring.
- Thin maternal triceps skinfold thickness at 15 weeks gestation strongly correlated with elevated child blood pressure.
- Reduced maternal weight gain between 15 and 35 weeks gestation was independently linked to higher blood pressure in children.
Conclusions:
- Impaired maternal nutrition during pregnancy may program offspring for hypertension.
- Findings suggest a critical role of maternal nutritional status in the developmental origins of cardiovascular disease.
Objective:
To examine the relation between indices of maternal nutrition during pregnancy, including haemoglobin concentration, skinfold thickness and body weight, and the child's blood pressure at 10 to 12 years of age.
Design:
Follow up study of children whose mothers had haemoglobin estimations, weights and skinfold thicknesses recorded during pregnancy.
Setting:
Kingston, Jamaica.
Subjects:
Seventy-seven children whose mothers took part in a prospective study of nutrition during pregnancy in relation to fetal growth.
Main Outcome Measure:
Blood pressure at 10 to 12 years of age.
Results:
The child's mean systolic pressure adjusted for current weight rose by 2.6 mmHg (95% CI 0.5-4.6, P = 0.01) for each 1 g/dl fall in the mother's lowest haemoglobin during pregnancy. Mothers with a lower haemoglobin had thinner skinfold thicknesses, especially over the triceps (P = 0.005). In multiple regression analyses, taking account of the child's sex and current weight, there was a strong association between thin maternal triceps skinfold thickness at 15 weeks of gestation and raised blood pressure in the offspring. Taking account of the mother's triceps skinfold thickness abolished the relation between lower haemoglobin and raised blood pressure in the child. Lower weight gain between 15 and 35 weeks of gestation was independently associated with raised children's blood pressure. Systolic pressure rose by 10.7 mmHg (95% CI 5.7 to 15.6, P = 0.0001) for each log mm decrease in the mother's triceps skinfold thickness, and by 0.6 mmHg (95% CI 0.1 to 1.0, P = 0.02) for each 1 kg decrease in the mother's weight gain during pregnancy.
Conclusions:
These results parallel animal experiments suggesting that impaired maternal nutrition may underlie the programming of adult hypertension during fetal life.