Among women who deliver at term, pregnancy-associated hypertension is associated with higher systolic blood pressure (BP) in the offspring, a recent study found. The analysis was a prospective observational follow-up study from 2012 to 2013 of children born to women previously enrolled in a mild gestational diabetes mellitus (DM) treatment trial or nongestational DM observational study. Researchers examined 979 children at a median age of 7 years and fasting blood samples were taken to determine cardiometabolic risk factors. They found:

• 23 (2%) children were born preterm from a hypertensive pregnancy, 73 (75) were born at term from a hypertensive pregnancy, 58 (6%) were born preterm from a normotensive pregnancy, and 825 (84%) were born at term from a normotensive pregnancy (reference group).
• Mean adjusted systolic BP was significantly higher in children born at term to mothers who experienced pregnancy-associated hypertension vs those born at term to normohypertensive mothers.
• This was not observed in the offspring from their measures of diastolic BP, BMI, waist circumference, homeostatic model assessment or insulin resistance, glucose, or lipids.