Abstract
We investigated the association of size at birth with hypertensive status defined by office blood pressure (BP) and 24-h ambulatory BP monitoring in a historical cohort study of 736 men born 1920–1924 and examined at age 70 years. Office BP was measured after 10-min supine rest with a sphygmomanometer, ambulatory BP was recorded with Accutracker 2, and anthropometric and other measurements were taken at a clinic. Birth weight and gestational age were abstracted from the men's birth records. A total of 24% of the men were treated for hypertension at the time of the study. Among not treated subjects, there was a weak positive association of birth weight with daytime and 24-h diastolic ambulatory BP. In subjects treated for hypertension, both office and ambulatory BP were inversely related to birth weight, although these associations were not statistically significant. Birth weight did not show significant association with sustained hypertension (elevated office and daytime ambulatory BPs) but showed a strong and statistically significant inverse association with ‘white coat’ hypertension (elevated office BP and normal daytime ambulatory BP) when adjusted for concurrent body mass index (odds ratios 1.91, 1.59, 1 and 1.21 from lowest to highest quartile of birth weight, P-value for trend 0.035). We conclude that BP measured by 24-h-ambulatory monitoring is not related to birth weight in a pattern previously reported for office BP and that factors related to growth in utero are particularly related to higher risk of ‘white coat’ hypertension.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 12 digital issues and online access to articles
$119.00 per year
only $9.92 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on Springer Link
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Leon DA, Koupilová I . Blood pressure and hypertension: epidemiological studies. In: Barker DJP (ed) Fetal Origins of Cardiovascular and Lung Disease. Marcel Dekker, Inc.: New York, 2000 pp 23–48.
Lackland DT, Egan BM, Ferguson PL . Low birth weight as a risk facto for hypertension. J Clin Hypertens (Greenwich) 2003; 5: 133–136.
Forrester T . Historic and early life origins of hypertension in Africans. J Nutr 2004; 134: 211–216.
Fall CHD . The fetal and early life origins of adult disease. Indian Pediatr 2003; 40: 480–502.
Huxley RR, Shiell AW, Law CM . The role of size at birth and postnatal catch-up growth in determining systolic blood pressure: a systematic review of the literature. J Hypertens 2000; 18: 815–831.
McMullen S, Gardner DS, Langley-Evans SC . Prenatal programming of angiotensin II type 2 receptor expression in the rat. Br J Nutr 2004; 91: 133–140.
Koupilová I, Leon DA, McKeigue PM, Lithell HO . Is the effect of low birth weight on cardiovascular mortality mediated through high blood pressure? J Hypertens 1999; 17: 19–25.
Björklund K . 24-Hour Ambulatory Blood Pressure — Relation to the Insulin Resistance Syndrome and Cardiovascular Disease, Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis. Comprehensive Summaries of Uppsala Dissertations from the Faculty of Medicine 1199. Uppsala, 2002, 62pp.
Staessen JA et al. Predicting cardiovascular risk using conventional vs ambulatory blood pressure in older patients with systolic hypertension: Systolic Hypertension in Europe Trial Investigators. JAMA 1999; 282: 539–546.
Verdecchia P, Angeli F, Gattobigio R, Porcellati C . Ambulatory blood pressure monitoring and prognosis in the management of essential hypertension. Expert Rev Cardiovasc Ther 2003; 1: 79–89.
Fagard RH et al. Relationship between ambulatory blood pressure and follow-up clinic blood pressure in elderly patients with systolic hypertension. J Hypertens 2004; 22: 81–87.
Björklund K et al. Prognostic significance of 24-h ambulatory blood pressure characteristics for cardiovascular morbidity in a population of elderly men. J Hypertens 2004; 22: 1691–1697.
Mancia G, Parati G . The role of blood pressure variability in end-organ damage. J Hypertens Suppl 2003; 21 (Suppl 6): S17–S23.
Mancia G, Parati G . Office compared with ambulatory blood pressure in assessing reponse to antihypertensive treatment: a meta-analysis. J Hypertens 2004; 22: 435–445.
Ylihärsilä H et al. Self-perpetuating effects of birth size on blood pressure levels in elderly people. Hypertension 2003; 41: 446–450.
Lurbe E et al. Relationship between birth weight and awake blood pressure in children and adolescents in absence of intrauterine growth retardation. Am J Hypertens 1996; 9: 787–794.
Lurbe E et al. Birth weight influences blood pressure values and variability in children and adolescents. Hypertension 2001; 38: 389–393.
O'Sullivan J, Wright C, Pearce MS, Parker L . The influence of age and gender on the relationship between birth weight and blood pressure in childhood: a study using 24-hour and casual blood pressure. Eur J Pediatr 2002; 161: 423–427.
Leon DA et al. Failure to realise growth potential in utero and adult obesity in relation to blood pressure in 50 year old Swedish men. BMJ 1996; 312: 401–406.
Koupilová I, Leon DA, Lithell HO, Berglund L . Size at birth and hypertension in longitudinally followed 50–70 year old men. Blood Pressure 1997; 6: 223–228.
Uppsala Longitudinal Study of Adult Men. http://www.pubcare.uu.se/ULSAM/ Accessed on 4 May 2004.
Hedstrand H, Aberg H . Treatment of hypertension in middle-aged men. A feasibility study in a community. Acta Med Scand 1976; 199: 281–288.
Lithell HO et al. Relation of size at birth to non-insulin dependent diabetes and insulin concentrations in men aged 50–60 years. BMJ 1996; 312: 406–410.
Koupilová I . Fetal Growth, Social Factors and Circulatory Diseases, Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis. Comprehensive Summaries of Uppsala Dissertations from the Faculty of Medicine 698. Uppsala, 1997, 70pp.
Guidelines Committee 2003. European Society of Hypertension–European Society of Cardiology guidelines for the management of arterial hypertension. J Hypertens 2003; 21: 1011–1053.
World Health Organization and International Society of Hypertension Writing Group 2003. World Health Organization (WHO)/International Society of Hypertension (ISH) statement on management of hypertension. J Hypertens 2003; 21: 1983–1992.
StataCorp. Stata Reference Manual. Release 7.0. College Station, TX: Stata Press, 2001.
Huxley R, Neil A, Collins R . Unravelling the fetal origins hypothesis: is there really an inverse association between birthweight and subsequent blood pressure? Lancet 2002; 360: 659–665.
Hardy R, Kuh D, Langenberg C, Wadsworth MEJ . Birthweight, childhood social class, and change in adult blood pressure in the 1946 British birth cohort. Lancet 2003; 362: 1178–1183.
Lackland DT, Egan BM, Syddall HE, Barker DJP . Associations between birth weight and antihypertensive medication in Black and White Medicaid recipients. Hypertension 2002; 39: 179–183.
Nilsson PM, Nyberg P, Östergren PO . Increased susceptibility to stress at a psychological assessment of stress tolerance is associated with impaired fetal growth. Int J Epidemiol 2001; 30: 75–80.
Clark PM et al. Size at birth and adrenocortical function in childhood. Clin Endocrinol (Oxford) 1996; 45: 721–726.
Phillips DI, Barker DJ . Association between low birthweight and high resting pulse in adult life: is the sympathetic nervous system involved in programming the insulin resistance syndrome? Diabet Med 1997; 14: 673–677.
Clark PM . Programming of the hypothalamo-pituitary–adrenal axis and the fetal origins of adult disease hypothesis. Eur J Pediatr 1998; 157 (Suppl 1): S7–S10.
Barnes RF, Raskind M, Gumbrecht G, Halter JB . The effects of age on the plasma catecholamine response to mental stress in man. J Clin Endocrinol Metab 1982; 54: 64–69.
Traustadottir T, Bosch PR, Matt KS . Gender differences in cardiovascular and hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis reponses to psychological stress in healthy older adult men and women. Stress 2003; 6: 133–140.
Moan A et al. Insulin sensitivity, sympathetic activity, and cardiovascular reactivity in young men. Am J Hypertension 1995; 8: 268–275.
Björntorp P, Rosmond R . The metabolic syndrome — a neuroendocrine disorder? Br J Nutr 2000; 83: S49–S57.
Acknowledgements
We thank all the ULSAM study participants and the ULSAM research team. We also thank Rawya Mohsen for help with data management, Kristina Björklund for contribution to design, and to Hans Lithell, Ian White and Denny Vågerö for valuable comments on an earlier version of this paper.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Conflicts of interest: none.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Koupil, I., Leon, D. & Byberg, L. Birth weight, hypertension and ‘white coat’ hypertension: size at birth in relation to office and 24-h ambulatory blood pressure. J Hum Hypertens 19, 635–642 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.jhh.1001868
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.jhh.1001868
Keywords
This article is cited by
-
Cardiovascular reactivity to psychological stressors in late adulthood is predicted by gestational age at birth
Journal of Human Hypertension (2007)
-
Towards understanding the aetiology and pathophysiology of human hypertension: where are we now?
Journal of Human Hypertension (2006)
-
Mechanisms of Disease: in utero programming in the pathogenesis of hypertension
Nature Clinical Practice Nephrology (2006)