Blood pressure in those born to mothers who smoked during pregnancy

Smoking is still a serious problem for society, especially in the gestation period.

“This habit has consequences that may not be noticeable at birth, but in the long term,” explains Esther Parada, a researcher at the Pediatrics, Nutrition and Human Development Research Unit (URPNDH) of the Pere Virgili Health Research Institute (IISPV). ) and the Rovira i Virgili University of Tarragona.

This research team has managed to directly relate tobacco consumption during pregnancy with higher high blood pressure in children, at the age of 11 years.

The study is titled “Effect of maternal smoking during pregnancy on child blood pressure in a European cohort”. And it has been published in the academic journal Scientific Reports.

For more than 20 years this team has been participating in a European study that has monitored 572 people from birth, including prenatal data. Although the initial objective was to assess whether the protein content of formula milk could have effects on childhood obesity in the long term, several prenatal and perinatal factors were also recorded that have allowed the identification of new indicators of cardiovascular risk. This is the case of smoking in pregnant women, which this research has associated with high blood pressure in children.

Blood pressure test. (Photo: Amanda Mills/CDC)

Of the total registered pregnant women, 20% had smoked, to a greater or lesser extent, during pregnancy. Eleven years later, the URV and IISPV research team has observed that the children of mothers who had smoked throughout their pregnancy have more than twice the chance of developing hypertension than those of mothers who had not smoked or had quit during the pregnancy. first trimester of pregnancy. For the researcher Esther Parada, this is something remarkable: “We have to let pregnant mothers know that quitting smoking, even while pregnant, represents a great benefit for the baby.” Although there is a well-studied relationship between smoking during pregnancy and low birth weight and also between low birth weight and developing hypertension, the babies analyzed in this study had a normal weight at birth. This has made it possible to demonstrate that smoking during pregnancy affects the cardiovascular health of the child more directly.

This study, in which European research groups participate, collects clinical data from individuals from the continent and records their prenatal factors —such as the mother’s educational level, alcohol consumption during pregnancy, birth weight, etc., as well as perinatal data —such as the evolution of weight, obesity, glycemic or lipid metabolism, early feeding and others. In this way, multiple research teams have an extensive and representative database of the European population that they can use to carry out research that statistically relates prenatal and perinatal factors with the appearance of cardiovascular diseases. The study will continue to grow in the future and, next year, a call is planned in which the data of the patients, who will be 18 years old, will be expanded. (Source: URV)