Birth weight and tracking of blood pressure: A 15-year follow-up study of Dutch adolescent twins

Eco de Geus, Richard IJzerman, Caroline van Baal, Elles Mulder, Jessica Hebly, Danielle Posthuma, Dorret Boomsma

Dept of Biological Psychology, Vrije Universiteit, Van der Boechorstraat 1, 1081 BT Amsterdam, The Netherlands

In a sample of 17-year old Dutch twins, we observed an inverse relation between birth weight and blood pressure. Blood pressure was measured in the laboratory during rest and mental stress conditions; birth weight was obtained from the mothers of twins. Intrapair differences in birth weight were negatively associated with differences in systolic BP in DZ, but not in MZ twins (Yzerman et al., 2000), suggesting genetic mediation of the association between birth weight and blood pressure. Fifteen years later, the twin sample was approached to participate in a laboratory study of brain and memory function, during which blood pressure was also assessed. Of the original sample of 320 twins 185 subjects participated again. First results show substantial tracking for systolic blood pressure (correlations over time between 0.3-0.4) and for diastolic blood pressure (correlations over time between 0.4 and 0.5). We will look  at the tracking data for blood pressure as a function of birth weight and address the question if the stability in blood pressure is caused by long-lasting effects of birth weight.