Healthy prepubescent children with mothers who smoked during pregnancy have higher systolic blood pressures and lower HDL cholesterol levels than do children born to women who do not smoke while pregnant, Dr. Julian G. Ayer of the University of Sydney, and his colleagues, reported in a longitudinal study.
“Cholesterol levels tend to track from childhood to adulthood, and studies have shown that for every 0.025-mmol/L increase in HDL levels, there is an approximately 2%-3% reduction in the risk of coronary heart disease,” Dr. David Celermajer, Scandrett Professor of Cardiology at the university, who led the study, said in a statement. “If we extrapolate this, we can suggest that the difference of 0.15 mmol/L between children of smoking mothers versus nonsmoking mothers might result in a 10%-15% higher risk for coronary disease in the children of smoking mothers.”
Results showed that children born to mothers who smoked during pregnancy had lower HDL cholesterol (1.32 vs. 1.50 mmol/L), higher triglycerides (1.36 vs.1.20 mmol/L) and higher systolic blood pressure (102.1 vs. 99.9 mm Hg). When postnatal ETS exposure and other confounders such as breastfeeding duration, physical inactivity, and maternal exposure to passive smoking during pregnancy were factored into the study, the children still had lower HDL cholesterol (a difference of −0.22 mmol/L) but had no significant difference in systolic blood pressure. When excluding postnatal ETS exposure and including all other confounders, the difference was about −0.14 mmol/L (Eur. Heart J. 2011 June 21 [doi:10.1093/eurheartj/ehr174]).
Included in the study were 328 children from Sydney who were enrolled into the Childhood Asthma Prevention Study (CAPS) at birth and who underwent a lipoprotein study at age 8 years.
Researchers received funding from an Australian Government National Health and Medical Research Council Project Grant and a Pfizer CVL Grant. The researchers reported no relevant financial disclosures.