Vitamin D deficiency in early life tied to elevated systolic BP during adolescence, finds study

Vitamin D deficiency or low vitamin-D trajectory in early life is tied to an increased risk of high systolic blood pressure (BP) during childhood and adolescence, revealed a study published in the journal Hypertension.

Vitamin D deficiency is associated with hypertension in adults. It is unknown to what degree vitamin D status in early life can affect blood pressure (BP) a decade later. This study investigated the effect of vitamin D trajectory through early life on systolic BP (SBP) in childhood.

Vitamin-D plays a vital role in the early development of a child. Not only having an optimum level of vitamin D is crucial to maintain calcium phosphate homeostasis but it is well established that suboptimal level of vitamin D is strongly associated with high blood pressure (BP) and subsequent cardiovascular disease (CVD) in the later life.

The authors of this conducted a prospective birth cohort study of 775 children enrolled from 2005 to 2012 and followed prospectively up to age 18 years at the Boston Medical Center, Boston, MA.

Persistent low vitamin-D status is defined as plasma 25(OH)D <11 ng/mL at birth and <25 ng/mL in early childhood. Elevated SBP is defined as SBP ≥75th percentile.

Following the analysis, it was observed that low vitamin D status at birth was associated with a higher risk of elevated SBP at ages 3 to 18 years compared to those with sufficient vitamin D.

Low vitamin D status in early childhood was associated with a 1.59-fold higher risk of elevated SBP at age 6 to 18 years. Persistent low vitamin D status from birth to early childhood was associated with a higher risk of elevated SBP at ages 3 to 18 years.

"These results suggest that low vitamin D status and trajectory in early life were associated with increased risk of elevated systolic blood pressure during childhood and adolescence. Our findings will help inform future clinical and public health strategies for vitamin D screening and supplementation in pregnancy and childhood to prevent or reduce the risk of elevated BP across the lifespan and generations." concluded the authors.

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https://doi.org/10.1161/HYPERTENSIONAHA.119.13120