Early Infantile Growth and Cardiovascular Risks inAdolescent Japanese Women

Abstract

Objective: Early life events connected with the risk of later disease can occur not only in utero, but also in infancy. In study of the developmental origins of health and disease, the relationship between infantile growth patterns and adolescent body mass index and blood pressure is one of the most important issues to verify.Materials and Methods: We analyzed the correlation of current body mass index and systolic blood pressure of 168 female college students with their growth patterns in utero and in infancy.Results: Body mass index and systolic blood pressure in adolescence showed positive correlations with changes in weight-for-age z scores between 1 and 18 months but not with those between 18 and 36 months. Stepwise multiple regression analysis showed that both change in weight-for-age z scores from 1 to 18 months and body mass index at 1 month were significantly and independently associated with systolic blood pressure in adolescence. Body mass index at 36 months was positively correlated with body mass index in adolescence, while body mass index at birth was negatively correlated with body mass index in adolescence.Conclusion: Our findings shows that restricted growth in utero and accelerated weight gain in early infancy are associated with the cardiovascular risk factors of high systolic blood pressure and high body mass index in adolescence. In Japan, an increasing proportion of low birth weight infants and accelerated catch-up growth after birth have been observed in recent decades. This might be an alarming harbinger of an increase in diseases related to the developmental origins of health and disease in Japan.

Relationship between prenatal and postnatal conditions and accelerated postnatal growth. Impact on the rigidity of the arterial wall and obesity in childhood

“…In turn, in our study and consistent with other studies, 19,22,24,[85][86][87] individuals who exhibited APG in infancy had higher mean values of BMI, WC, FMI, SBP, MAP and cf-PWV in childhood. APG from 0 to 2 years, in itself, did not have a significant effect on cf-PWV and FMI in childhood, but it did have the interaction between AF and APG.…”

Blood Pressure Trajectories from Childhood to Adolescence in Pediatric Hypertension

“…This implies that the importance of postnatal growth patterns of term SGA infants, rather than the SGA condition itself, might be more importantly related to CV risks later in life 48). In addition, many other papers have addressed increased CV risks, including high BP related with early infantile rapid growth 52)…”