Birth Weight Effect on Blood Pressure in Late Childhood
Condition: Cardiovascular Diseases; Heart Diseases; Hypertension
MeSH terms: Cardiovascular Diseases; Heart Diseases
Study type: Observational

Summary: 
      To investigate the relationship of birth weight and childhood blood pressure.
    

Detailed description: 
      BACKGROUND:

      Cardiovascular diseases are the leading causes of morbidity and mortality in the United
      States. On the basis of an interplay of genetic and environmental factors, these diseases
      appear to be rooted in childhood. Recent reports implicate the intrauterine nutritional
      environment regulating fetal growth as a determinant of adult cardiovascular disease.
      According to this concept, impaired fetal growth, with consequent lower birth weight, results
      in alteration in organ structure and subsequent functional impairment in later life. Higher
      blood pressure (BP) has been suggested as the possible link between compromised intrauterine
      growth and the long-term risk for cardiovascular disease. Despite the many reports which
      appear to support the low birth weight - high BP hypothesis, this concept is in conflict with
      the body of data on the association of BP with body size in childhood, adolescence, and
      adulthood which consistently demonstrates a direct relationship between body weight and BP.

      The results of this prospective study contributed an objective body of data to this important
      issue. If birth measures reflecting intrauterine exposure do contribute significantly to BP
      in later childhood, then studies focused on the mechanisms regulating this risk are
      justified. Alternatively, if post-natal/childhood parameters are the major determinants of
      later BP, then efforts should focus on effective preventive strategies in childhood, such as
      obesity.

      DESIGN NARRATIVE:

      To examine the low birth weight - high blood pressure concept, the investigators conducted a
      prospective study on a cohort of children who were well characterized at birth. In 1988, data
      on weight, length, BP, gestation and maternal health were obtained on 1,160 newborn cases
      representing a range of birth weight and gestational age. They re-examined these children at
      age 11-13 years to test the overall hypothesis that birth weight, as well as other newborn
      measures of intrauterine growth, did not correlate with BP at age 11-13 years. The aims of
      the project were to: 1) determine if birth weight contributed to BP and/or body size in
      childhood; 2) determine if the duration of intrauterine growth in terms of gestational age
      contributed to BP and body size; 3) determine if newborn ponderal index, a measure of
      relative fetal growth, contributed to BP and body size; and 4) determine the relative
      contribution of newborn measures of birth weight, gestational age, BP, ponderal index, and
      maternal health to BP and body size in late childhood.

      The study completion date listed in this record was obtained from the "End Date" entered in
      the Protocol Registration and Results System (PRS) record.