Risk of Hypertension Among Young Adults Who Were Born Preterm: A Swedish National Study of 636,000 Births

Previous studies have reported an association between preterm birth and elevated blood pressure in adolescence and young adulthood. These studies were based on single-day blood pressure measurements and had limited ability to estimate risk of hypertension measured over a longer period and across the full range of gestational ages. The authors conducted a national cohort study of all infants born in Sweden from 1973 through 1979 (n = 636,552), including 28,220 born preterm (= 1 antihypertensive medications/year ranged from 1.25 (95% confidence interval: 1.12, 1.39) for those born near term (35-36 weeks) to 2.51 (95% confidence interval: 1.11, 5.68) for those born extremely preterm (23-27 weeks) relative to those born full term. These findings suggest that preterm birth is strongly associated with hypertension in young adulthood, including an increased risk among those born near term