Prevent Disease.com - Low Birth Weight Linked to Higher Blood Pressure



		Low Birth Weight Linked to Higher Blood Pressure NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - An infant's weight at birth appears to influence blood pressure into childhood and adolescence, study findings suggest. According to researchers, children with the lowest birth weights had the highest blood pressure readings by the time they reached 4 to 18 years. These children also had the greatest variability in their blood pressure, suggesting that they may be at risk for high blood pressure in the future. A growing body of evidence suggests that the fetal environment is associated with risk of heart disease and high blood pressure later in life. The new findings add weight to the influence of life inside the womb on later health, the study's authors note in the September issue of Hypertension: Journal of the American Heart Association. Birth weight, even within a range considered healthy, is a marker of fetal nutrition and other factors that can shape the medical fate of a developing baby, the researchers point out. In the study, Dr. Empar Lurbe and colleagues from the University of Valencia in Spain divided a group of 630 children born full term into five groups according to their weight at birth, and measured blood pressure and heart rate over a 24-hour period. Birth weight was not associated with heart rate, the report indicates. And while a child's current weight was deemed to be the strongest predictor of blood pressure, birth weight was also significant after accounting for gender, age and height. ``Children with lower birth weight, even in the absence of intrauterine growth retardation, also have higher blood pressure values than do those of other birth weight groups,'' according to Lurbe's team. ``The mechanisms that promote intrauterine growth retardation and/or rising blood pressure values later in life, such as the influence of genetic factors, remain to be defined,'' they note. SOURCE: Hypertension 2001;38:389-393. Reference Source 89 For more information on how to prevent other diseases, use PreventDisease.com's "Quick Prevention Resources".