Key result
Each standard deviation increase in childhood IQ was associated with a 3.15 mmHg decrease in systolic blood pressure and a 1.5 mmHg decrease in diastolic blood pressure at midlife.
Why the study?
Does childhood mental ability predict mid-life blood pressure in a community cohort?
Cohort (n=938)
Does childhood mental ability predict mid-life blood pressure in a community cohort?
Higher childhood IQ is independently associated with lower systolic and diastolic blood pressure in mid-life.
OBJECTIVES: To establish the relationship between childhood mental ability and adult hypertension. DESIGN: Retrospective cohort study. SETTING: Community. PARTICIPANTS: Non-clinical sample of people born in 1921 who participated in both the Scottish Mental Survey 1932 and the Midspan studies. Nine hundred and thirty-eight people were participants in both studies. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Mid-life systolic and diastolic blood pressure, intelligence quotient (IQ) at age 11 years, sex, social class, height and weight. RESULTS: After adjustment for age, sex, social class, body mass index, height, cholesterol level and smoking, there remained a 3.15 mmHg decrease in systolic blood pressure and a 1.5 mmHg decrease in diastolic blood pressure for each standard deviation increase in childhood IQ. CONCLUSIONS: The association between hypertension and lower cognitive function in adulthood is partly accounted for by individual differences in childhood IQ.
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Starr et al. (2004) conducted a cohort in Hypertension (n=938). Childhood mental ability (IQ) was evaluated on Mid-life systolic and diastolic blood pressure (-3.15 mmHg SBP, -1.5 mmHg DBP per SD increase in IQ). Each standard deviation increase in childhood IQ was associated with a 3.15 mmHg decrease in systolic blood pressure and a 1.5 mmHg decrease in diastolic blood pressure at midlife.
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