Objectives: To determine whether dietary vitamin E intake in childhood or mid-life was predictive of adult hypertension and high waist circumference, as two important risk factors for cardiovascular disease.
Design: Longitudinal study of a social class stratified random sample of all the legitimate, singleton births in the week of 3-9 March 1946.
Settings: England, Scotland and Wales.
Subjects: The 2980 survey members who provided information on diet, health and sociodemographic information at two time points; age 4 y in 1950 (24-h dietary recall) and 43 y in 1989 (48-h dietary recall).
Main outcome measures: Outcomes were adjusted odds ratios (ORs) for hypertension and high waist circumference at age 43 y by thirds of vitamin E intake, relative to the highest intake thirds at both ages.
Results: The lowest consumers of vitamin E in both childhood and adulthood were more likely to be hypertensive (OR 1.8, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.03-3.08) and have high waist circumference (OR 1.6, 95% CI: 1.02-2.43) than those consuming high levels at both ages. A low intake of vitamin E at just one time point was not associated with a statistically significant increased risk of hypertension or high waist circumference. Social class was also an independent and equally strong predictor of these coronary risk factors, indicating that the relation between social class and cardiovascular risks was not mediated solely by the current measures of diet and lifestyle.
Conclusions: Unique data on vitamin E intake from foods in both childhood and adulthood have indicated that relatively low intake of vitamin E at both ages predicted hypertension and high waist circumference at age 43 y.