Premium
The relationship between birth weight, maternal nutritional status, and blood pressure among 7 year old children in rural Nepal
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.22.1_supplement.453.5
Subject(s) - medicine , body mass index , blood pressure , micronutrient , malnutrition , birth weight , population , low birth weight , pregnancy , pediatrics , demography , environmental health , biology , pathology , sociology , genetics
Birth weight (BW) has been inversely associated with blood pressure (BP) in studies in developed countries, yet the greatest burden of low BW and chronic disease exists in the developing world. Our objective was to examine the relationship between BW, maternal nutritional status, and BP in childhood in a rural malnourished population in Nepal. We followed ~3000 children whose mothers participated previously in a micronutrient supplementation trial (1999–2001) at age ~7y (2006–2007), to assesss among other indicators, systolic (SBP) and diastolic BP (DBP), height and weight. There was a negative association between BW and SBP (β = −0.90; p = 0.031) and DBP (−0.95; p = 0.029), which was significant after adjusting for age, sex and SES. SBP was associated with current body mass index (BMI, β=0.67; p<0.001), which also remained significant after adjustment. In the multivariate model, both BMI and BW were independently but not interactively associated with BP. BMI strengthened the association between BW and SBP (−1.64; p<0.001) and DBP (−1.61; p<0.001). Maternal BMI and height in the first trimester were not associated with child BP. Thus, in this environment of chronic malnutrition, BW was inversely associated with BP. Improving BW in malnourished populations may lead to improved adult cardiovascular health, but more research is needed in developing countries.