How environmental factors affect children's blood pressure?

Exposure to environmental factors, such as pollution, chemical products or even the density of household services, during pregnancy and childhood, affects the blood pressure of boys and girls, according to a study by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal).

Research has evaluated the relationships between more than 200 environmental factors and infant blood pressure from an exposome perspective, that is, looking at environmental exposures as a whole from the prenatal phase, rather than studying each one individually.

Environmental factors range from chemical agents (pesticides, glues, plasticizers) to weather conditions or daily habits.

"Deciphering the effects of each of these exposures on health is extremely complicated and can lead to misleading results since contact with them does not usually occur in isolation," explains Charline Warembourg, ISGlobal researcher and first author.

Environmental epidemiology

According to the researcher, the exposome is making its way in the field of environmental epidemiology, a holistic approach used by the ISGlobal study, a center promoted by ”la Caixa”, which has analyzed more than 200 environmental exposures that occur during pregnancy and childhood.

The study, published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, concludes that some of the environmental factors analyzed could have an impact on the blood pressure of boys and girls.

The research included the participation of 1,277 children and their mothers and was carried out within the framework of the HELIX project, which gathers data from cohorts from six European countries (Spain, France, Greece, Lithuania, Norway and the United Kingdom).

The evaluation of the various exposures was carried out during pregnancy and also when the boys and girls were between 6 and 11 years old, the age range in which they participated in a clinical examination that included blood and urine samples and blood pressure measurement.

How it affects children's blood pressure?

In total, the scientific team evaluated 89 prenatal and 128 postnatal exposures, divided into three groups: outdoor exposures (air pollution, weather conditions, green spaces), chemical exposures (pesticides, metals, plasticizers) and related factors to lifestyle (diet, physical activity, sleep patterns, etc).

"Our results show that, from the fetal stage, where we live, what we eat and breathe, and the chemicals that enter our bodies can affect blood pressure before we reach adolescence," Warembourg said. she recalled that "there is evidence that people with high blood pressure during childhood are more likely to suffer from hypertension in adulthood."

Researchers have seen, for example, the exposure of mothers during pregnancy to tobacco smoke or bisphenol-A (a plasticizer), as well as those cases in which mothers reported consuming little or a lot of fish during pregnancy (at least twice a week or more than four) coincided with boys and girls with arterial hypertension.

Along the same lines, children who had higher levels of copper and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA, a compound used for its nonstick properties in pots, pans, clothing, etc.) in their blood had higher blood pressure.

“More difficult to interpret are other associations, particularly the one seen with fish consumption during pregnancy. We know that fish contains essential fatty acids that are necessary and beneficial, but also that it is a source of chemical compounds, which perhaps helps explain why adjusting intake to moderate doses is the practice with the best results for blood pressure," she adds.

Children's exposure to outdoor temperatures

The research also describes associations with lower blood pressure, such as children's exposure to higher outdoor temperatures or the density of services around the maternal home during pregnancy.

“Urban design factors, such as the number of shops, restaurants, parks or public transport stops, determine the way people use the city and move around it, and are important for health because they promote activity physical and social contact”, explains Xavier Basagaña, ISGlobal researcher and the last author of the study.

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