The spectrum of adverse outcomes after fetal and perinatal insults unfolded beyond childhood and included adult-onset schizophrenia. The findings have implications for understanding the mechanisms involved in the development of schizophrenia and, possibly, for its prevention.

The Northern Finland birth cohort comprises 12,058 live births in 1966-96.3% of all births in the region. The investigation was started during pregnancy and the last follow-up of the total series was at the age of 14 years, when the coverage was still large. Smaller samples of the children and data for the study population from national registers were also examined for the older age groups. The health and development of the children was studied, with special emphasis placed on obtaining reliable incidence figures for neurological handicaps and their correlation with perinatal events. In particular, the correlation between low birthweight and handicapping conditions was documented thoroughly. The indicators predictive of low birthweight among the biological characteristics of the mother and the social conditions of the mother and family, included maternal smoking during pregnancy. The latter was associated not only with adverse perinatal outcome but also with reduction in educational achievement and height among survivors.

Abstract-Data on the birth weight-blood pressure relationship are inconsistent. Although an inverse association has been suggested in several large studies, interpretation is complicated by publication and other biases. Few data are available on the relationship between other early growth measures and blood pressure. We examined the shape and size of association between determinants of fetal growth, size at birth, growth in infancy, and adult systolic and diastolic blood pressure at 31 years in the prospective northern Finnish 1966 birth cohort of 5960 participants. Birth weight, birth length, gestational age, ponderal index, and birth weight relative to gestational age showed a significant inverse association with blood pressure at age 31. Rapid growth in infancy ("change-up") was positively associated with blood pressure. Adjusted regression coefficients for birth weight indicated systolic/diastolic blood pressure lower by Ϫ1.7 (95% confidence interval [CI], Ϫ2.5, Ϫ1.0)/Ϫ0.7 (95% CI, Ϫ1.4, Ϫ0.02) mm Hg for 1 kg higher birth weight. The significant inverse association between birth weight and systolic blood pressure persisted without adjustment for adult body mass index for males. Among females, gestational age showed a stronger association with blood pressure than birth weight: gestational age higher by 7 weeks (equivalent to an average of 1 kg higher birth weight) among singletons associated with Ϫ2.9 (95% CI, Ϫ4.