Purpose: Prospective evidence suggests an inverse association between socioeconomic circumstances in childhood and adolescence and blood pressure (BP) in adulthood, but uncertainty remains about whether this association is confounded by risk factors acting in utero, early infancy, and adulthood. The authors investigated this question in a population-based cohort of 2270 Finnish children and adolescents aged 3 to 18 years at study entry.
Methods: Information about early socioeconomic circumstances, birth weight, and breast-feeding were requested from participants or their mothers in 1980 and 1983. Adulthood socioeconomic position, lifestyle factors, and systolic BP were measured at ages 24 to 39 years in 2001.
Results: There was a graded association between lower parental socioeconomic position in childhood and adolescence and higher systolic BP in adulthood for men and women in different birth cohorts and across different socioeconomic indicators. This association was independent of adulthood socioeconomic position. Adjustment for risk factors, including birth weight, breast-feeding, adult body mass index, smoking, and alcohol consumption, had little effect on the association between parental socioeconomic position and systolic BP.
Conclusion: Early socioeconomic disadvantage seems to carry a long-lasting harmful effect on BP that is not counteracted by risk profiles in later life.