High blood pressure in pregnancy linked to lower child IQ

High blood pressure during pregnancy may have a detrimental impact on a child’s IQ right through to old age, new research today suggests.

According to a Finnish study, the adult children of women who suffered high blood pressure while expecting scored lower on tests measuring their ‘thinking skills’.

Their language abilities, Maths reasoning and visual and spatial awareness were all poorer than those of children whose mothers did not have raised blood pressure. With evidence already strong that high blood pressure can cause greater risks of heart disease and stroke in children when they reach adulthood, experts say this latest finding makes early recognition and treatment of hypertension during pregnancy all the more vital. It can affect as many as ten per cent of expectant mothers.

Professor Jeremy Pearson, associate medical director at the British Heart Foundation, which part-funded the research, said: “Previous work by our scientists led to the first recognition that children born to mothers with raised blood pressure during pregnancy have an increased risk of heart disease and stroke when they grow up. “This small study suggests high blood pressure during pregnancy has another, previously unrecognized effect. “It further emphasizes the importance of early recognition and treatment of raised blood pressure in pregnancy.”

Researchers at the University of Helsinki examined the records of 398 women who gave birth to a son between 1934 and 1944. The thinking abilities of the grown-up children were tested at aged 20 and again at 69. The capabilities of those born to mothers with hypertension were lower than those of their peers – and they suffered a greater decline in their scores into old age, particularly around maths-related reasoning.

Study author Katri Raikkonen said: “High blood pressure and related conditions such as preeclampsia complicate about ten per cent of all pregnancies and can affect a baby's environment in the womb. "Our study suggests that even declines in thinking abilities in old age could have originated during the prenatal period when the majority of the development of brain structure and function occurs."

The results were the same regardless of whether the child was born to a manual labourer or office worker father, or was premature or term. The study is published in the online medical journal Neurology.

Yahoo Lifestyle
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