Prenatal and perinatal predictors of blood pressure at school age in former preterm, low birth weight infants

Objective: The objective of this study is to investigate prenatal and perinatal determinants of school age blood pressure (BP) in former preterm, low birth weight infants. Study Design: We studied 694 participants in the Infant Health and Development Program, an eight-center longitudinal study of children born <= 37 weeks and <= 2500 g. We obtained information about prenatal and perinatal factors by interview and medical record review, and measured BP three times at age 6.5 years. Result: Adjusting for sex, age, sociodemographic variables and height Z-score; for each Z-score birth weight for gestational age-which represents fetal growth-systolic BP at 6.5 years was 0.7 min Hg higher (95% confidence interval -0.1, 1.6). Maternal age, pre-pregnancy weight, gestational weight gain, smoking, preeclampsia, gestational diabetes, and child gestational age and neonatal complications were also not associated with BP. Conclusion: In contrast to full-term infants, slower fetal growth was not associated with higher BP in former preterm, low birth weight infants. Journal of Perinatology (2012) 32, 265-269; doi:10.1038/jp.2011.88; published online 7 July 2011