Findings seen for prepregnancy obesity, gestational diabetes, and hypertensive disorders of pregnancy, alone or in various combinations
By Lori Solomon HealthDay Reporter
WEDNESDAY, May 14, 2025 (HealthDay News) — Maternal cardiometabolic risk factors are significantly associated with higher blood pressure (BP) in childhood for their offspring, according to a study published online May 8 in JAMA Network Open.
Zhongzheng Niu, Ph.D., from the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, and colleagues examined the association between maternal cardiometabolic risk factors during pregnancy and offspring BP. The analysis included 12,480 mother-offspring pairs participating in the Environmental Influences on Child Health Outcomes program.
The researchers found that offspring born to mothers with any cardiometabolic risk factors had higher systolic BP (4.88 percentile points) and higher diastolic BP (1.90 percentile points) at their first BP measurement, when adjusting for potential confounders, compared with their counterparts without any risk factors. There was a significant association with higher offspring BP for hypertensive disorders of pregnancy, alone or with either prepregnancy obesity or gestational diabetes. Among female offspring, these associations were generally more significant than for male offspring and among Black offspring versus offspring from other racial and ethnic groups. Among 6,015 offspring with two or more BP measures, maternal cardiometabolic risk factors were associated with an increased rate of BP change from age 2 to 18 years (systolic BP percentile, 0.5 per year; diastolic BP percentile, 0.7 per year).
“These findings suggest that protecting pregnant individuals from cardiometabolic risk factors may promote healthier blood pressure in the next generation,” the authors write.
Two authors disclosed ties to pharmaceutical companies.
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