Early-Life Predictors of Systolic Blood Pressure Trajectories From Infancy to Adolescence: Findings From Project Viva

Childhood blood pressure (BP) is a strong predictor of later risk of cardiovascular disease. However, few studies have assessed dynamic BP trajectories throughout the early-life period. We investigated the relationship between early-life factors and systolic BP (SBP) from infancy to adolescence using linear spline mixed-effects models among 1,370 children from Project Viva, a Boston, Massachusetts-area cohort recruited in 1999-2002. After adjusting for confounders and child height, we observed higher SBP in children exposed to gestational diabetes mellitus (vs. normoglycemia; age 3 years: β = 3.16 mm Hg (95% confidence interval (CI): 0.28, 6.04); age 6 years: β = 1.83 mm Hg (95% CI: 0.06, 3.60)), hypertensive disorders of pregnancy (vs. normal maternal BP; age 6 years: β = 1.39 mm Hg (95% CI: 0.10, 2.67); age 9 years: β = 1.84 mm Hg (95% CI: 0.34, 3.34); age 12 years: β = 1.70 mm Hg (95% CI: 0.48, 2.92)), higher neonatal SBP (per 10-mm Hg increase; age 3 years: β = 1.26 mm Hg (95% CI: 0.42, 2.09); age 6 years: β = 1.00 mm Hg (95% CI: 0.49, 1.51); age 9 years: β = 0.75 mm Hg (95% CI: 0.17, 1.33)), and formula milk in the first 6 months of life (vs. breast milk only; age 12 years: β = 2.10 mm Hg (95% CI: 0.46, 3.74); age 15 years: β = 3.52 mm Hg (95% CI: 1.40, 5.64); age 18 years: β = 4.94 mm Hg (95% CI: 1.88, 7.99)). Our findings provide evidence of programming of offspring SBP trajectories by gestational diabetes, hypertensive disorders of pregnancy, and formula milk intake and of neonatal BP being a potentially useful marker of childhood BP. These factors could be relevant in identifying children who are at risk of developing elevated BP.