Placental weight, birth measurements, and blood pressure at age 8 years

Objective - To examine relationships between blood pressure during childhood and both placental weight and body size at birth, in an Australian population. Design - A follow up study of a birth cohort, undertaken when cohort members were aged 8 years. Setting - Adelaide, South Australia. Subjects - 830 children born in the Queen Victoria Hospital in Adelaide, South Australia, during 1975-6. Main outcome measures - Systolic and diastolic blood pressure measured when the children were aged g years. Results - Blood pressure at 8 years was positively related to placental weight and inversely related to birth weight, after adjusting for the child's current weight. For diastolic pressure there was a decrease of 1.0 mm Hg for each 1 kg increase in birth weight (95% confidence interval (CI) = -0.4 to 2.4) and an increase of 0.7 mm Hg for each 100 g increase in placental weight (95% CI = 0.1 to 1.3). Diastolic pressure was also inversely related to chest circumference at birth, independently of placental weight, with a decrease of 0.3 mm Hg for each 1 cm increase in chest circumference (95% CI = 0.2 to 0.5). Conclusions - These findings are further evidence that birth characteristics, indicative of fetal growth patterns, are related to blood pressure in later life.