Association between maternal education and blood pressure: mediation evidence through height components in the Brazilian Longitudinal Study of Adult Health (ELSA-Brasil)

作者：Lopez Santiago Rodriguez; Bensenor Isabela M; Giatti Luana; Molina Maria del Carmen; Lotufo Paulo A^*

来源：Annals of Human Biology, 2017, 44(3): 243-251.

DOI：10.1080/03014460.2016.1188983

• Maternal education
• height components
• blood pressure
• mediation modelling
• transitioning populations

Background: Maternal education influences skeletal growth and offspring adult blood pressure (BP). Height components are negatively associated with BP in high-income countries.
Aim: To evaluate the association between maternal education and offspring adult systolic and diastolic BP (SBP/DBP), assessing whether different height components might mediate such an association.
Subjects and methods: Simple mediation modelling was used to evaluate the maternal education-offspring SBP/DBP association, estimating the contribution of offspring height components, in a cross-sectional sample of 13 571 Brazilians aged 34-75 from the ELSA-Brasil study.
Results: After full adjustment for confounders, and compared to participants whose mothers received low education, those whose mothers received high education had, on average, 0.2 mm Hg lower SBP (95% CI = -0.274, -0.132), as result of the link between maternal education and offspring adult height which, in turn, influenced SBP. Thus, 18-26% of the maternal education-SBP association occurred indirectly, through height, trunk and leg length, alternatively.
Conclusions: Better maternal education might influence higher leg and trunk lengths in offspring, which, in turn, might contribute to prevent higher BP in adults. The negative height-BP association reported in high-income countries is also present in a middle-income country with more recent economic development.

• 出版日期2017-5