Study on Prenatal Urban Environmental Exposures and Blood Pressure Trajectories

A recent study by Ana Goncalves Soares and team unveiled a significant association between prenatal urban environmental exposures and blood pressure trajectories in children, offering crucial insights into the long-term impacts of early-life surroundings. The study was published in the JACC Advances and included 7,454 participants.

This research employed an exposome-wide association approach after considering 43 prenatal urban exposures, which ranged from:

• Noise and air pollution
• Built environment
• Natural spaces
• Traffic
• Meteorology
• Food environment

This comprehensive approach uncovered the critical dynamics of how environmental factors during pregnancy might shape blood pressure patterns from childhood into early adulthood.

With a mean yearly change of 0.29 mm Hg/y, the results indicated that higher humidity was associated with a faster increase in systolic blood pressure (SBP) during childhood. Also, higher temperatures were linked to a slower increase in SBP, suggesting a precise relationship between environmental factors and blood pressure regulation.

This study replicated its key findings in four independent European cohorts comprising a total of 9,261 participants. The impact of humidity and temperature on blood pressure changes was consistent across these diverse populations, which strengthens the credibility of the outcomes of this study.

The results suggest that prenatal exposure to higher humidity and temperature could influence the trajectory of blood pressure changes throughout childhood. This study highlights the often-overlooked impact of prenatal environmental factors and paves the way for understanding and potentially reducing the long-term health implications associated with growing up in urban environments.

Reference

Gonçalves Soares, A., Santos, S., Seyve, E., Nedelec, R., Puhakka, S., Eloranta, A.-M., Mikkonen, S., Yuan, W. L., Lawlor, D. A., Heron, J., Vrijheid, M., Lepeule, J., Nieuwenhuijsen, M., Fossati, S., Jaddoe, V. W. V., Lakka, T., Sebert, S., Heude, B., Felix, J. F., … Timpson, N. J. (2024). Prenatal urban environment and blood pressure trajectories from childhood to early adulthood. JACC Advances, 3(2), 100808. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jacadv.2023.100808