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Premature birth raises blood pressure risk: study

Posted on: Monday, 21 November 2005, 16:23 CST

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Premature birth may create a risk for high blood pressure, a study by scientists based on tests of Swedish men showed on Monday.

The study, to be presented in the Wednesday edition of the Journal of the American Heart Association, involved 329,495 Swedish men born between 1973 and 1981 and drafted for military service between 1993 and 2001, who had blood pressure tests.

It found that men born extremely pre-term, at less than 29 weeks, had almost twice the risk of high blood pressure, which raises the chances of heart attacks, strokes and other illnesses.

Men born very pre-term, at 29-32 weeks, had a 45 percent increased risk, while those born moderately pre-term, at 33 to 36 weeks, had a 24 percent increased risk.

"In this study, pre-term birth was identified as a new and very early risk factor for high blood pressure," said Stefan Johansson, lead author of the study and a neonatologist at the Karolinska University Hospital in Stockholm.

"The risk was particularly high among young men who were born at least eight weeks early," he added in a statement.

The association between pre-term birth and high blood pressure was unlikely to be explained by family history or genetic factors, he said. Rather it was likely to be due to challenges faced by the premature baby.

Source: REUTERS

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