Relationship between Birth Weight and Hypertension in Adolescents: A School based Study

Aditi Baruah, Abhijit Dutta, Raghuram Saminathan, Sarat Hazarika
Author(s)
1Professor Paediatrics, Department of Paediatrics, Lakhimpur Medical College, Lakhimpur, Assam, India. 2Associate Professor, Department of Paediatrics, Lakhimpur Medical College, Lakhimpur, Assam, India. 3Thaai Children Clinic, Kurumbapalayam, Pirivu, Madukarrai, Coimbatore, Tamilnadu, India. 4Associate Professor, Department of Medicine, Lakhimpur Medical College, Lakhimpur, Assam, India

Abstract

Background: It has been hypothesized that under nutrition during foetal life can program the development of risk factors for hypertension; and almost half of all adult hypertensives had an elevated blood pressure in childhood. There is a lack of sufficient research on the connection between birthweight and blood pressure in children and adolescents. Objective of this study was to find out the relationship between these two parameters in adolescents. Material and Methods: 750 children (450 boys and 300 girls aged 10 to 16 years) were enrolled from four schools of Dibrugarh and stratified into six birth weight groups. Blood pressure, height and weight were measured in school and information regarding birth weight was gathered from parents. Association between blood pressure and weight at birth was analysed while controlling for obesity, a potential confounding factor. Results: The overall prevalence of hypertension among the study population was 8%. There were no students with birth weight group of ā‰¤ 1499gm in our study. Children with birth weight group 1500-1999gm had the highest prevalence of hypertension with 37.5% followed by birth weight group 2000-2499gm with 17.14% and 3000 ā€“ 3499gm with 9.90%. After adjusting for confounding factor of obesity using multiple logistic regression, birth weight group 1500-1999gm had the highest odds of becoming hypertensive with OR=19.1 followed by birth weight group 2000-2499gm and 3000-3499gm with OR=5.8 and OR = 2.1 respectively. Conclusion: We found that lower birth weight groups had high chances of having high blood pressure even after adjusting for BMI.A more in-depth look at fetal development and keeping birth weight within an appropriate range may be essential for preventing primary hypertension.

Keywords: High blood pressure, Nutrition during fetal life, School going children, 10 to16 years age, Weight at birth, Association, Insults during fetal life, Non-communicable disease, North East India, Risk factor.

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