The association between salt intake and adult systolic blood pressure is modified by birth weight.

摘要

BACKGROUND: Epidemiologic evidence suggests that prenatal growth influences adult blood pressure. Nutritional factors, including salt intake, also influence blood pressure. However, it is unknown whether prenatal growth modifies the association between salt intake and blood pressure in later life. OBJECTIVE: Our aim was to examine whether the relation between salt intake and adult blood pressure is modified by birth weight. DESIGN: We studied 1512 participants of the Helsinki Birth Cohort Study who were born between 1934 and 1944. Information on birth weight was abstracted from birth records, and preterm births were excluded. During a clinical study, at the mean age of 62 y, blood pressure, weight, and height were measured. Diet was assessed with a validated food-frequency questionnaire. The relation between salt intake and blood pressure was tested by a piecewise multivariate regression analysis with the best fitting breakpoints to birth weight and salt intake. RESULTS: An inverse association was observed between birth weight and systolic blood pressure (SBP) (P = 0.02). No significant association between salt intake and SBP was observed in the whole study population. Of those whose birth weight was