Pre‐eclampsia and offspring's blood pressure, cognitive ability and physical development at 17‐years‐of‐age

Objective— To investigate the influence of maternal pre‐eclampsia on the blood pressure, physique and intelligence of the offspring at the age of 17 years. Design— Data obtained at the age of 17 during assessment for drafting to the Israel Defence Forces and from the records of the mothers' pregnancies from the Jerusalem Perinatal Study. Subjects— Study subjects were 145 girls and 283 boys whose mothers had had pre‐eclampsia and controls were 12 701 girls and 20 416 boys whose mothers did not have pre‐eclampsia. Main outcome measures— Systolic and diastolic blood pressure, weight, height and intelligence scores at the age of 17 were related to birthweight and the occurrence of pre‐eclampsia during their mothers' pregnancies. Results— Systolic blood pressure was >140 mmHg in 6.9 and 11.0% of the study girls and boys, compared with 2.9 and 9.9% of the control girls and boys. The study boys but not the girls had a higher mean body mass index than the controls (P<0.001). There were no differences in the intelligence scores. Using multiple logistic regression to allow for the confounding effects of body mass index, weight and birthweight, the odds ratio for the risk of a systolic pressure >140 mmHg was 2.30 (95% CI 1.80–4.46) for the study girls but was not significantly increased for the study boys. Conclusion— Maternal pre‐eclampsia does not impair growth and cognitive performance in the children who reach late adolescence but may be associated with hypertension.