Childhood mental ability and blood pressure at midlife: linking the Scottish Mental Survey 1932 and the Midspan studies

OBJECTIVES: To establish the relationship between childhood mental ability and adult hypertension. DESIGN: Retrospective cohort study. SETTING: Community. PARTICIPANTS: Non-clinical sample of people born in 1921 who participated in both the Scottish Mental Survey 1932 and the Midspan studies. Nine hundred and thirty-eight people were participants in both studies. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Mid-life systolic and diastolic blood pressure, intelligence quotient (IQ) at age 11 years, sex, social class, height and weight. RESULTS: After adjustment for age, sex, social class, body mass index, height, cholesterol level and smoking, there remained a 3.15 mmHg decrease in systolic blood pressure and a 1.5 mmHg decrease in diastolic blood pressure for each standard deviation increase in childhood IQ. CONCLUSIONS: The association between hypertension and lower cognitive function in adulthood is partly accounted for by individual differences in childhood IQ