New research, part funded by the British Heart Foundation, shows that high blood pressure among expectant mothers may have an effect on their child’s IQ in later life.
The medical records of 398 women who gave birth to a son between 1934 and 1944 were examined by researchers. The thinking abilities of the grown up children, including language skills, maths reasoning and visual and spatial awareness, were then tested aged 20 and then again at an average age of 69. Results showed that men whose mothers had high blood pressure while pregnant scored lower on thinking ability tests at age 69, compared to those whose mothers did not have high blood pressure. The new research from Finland was published in Neurology, a journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
