High blood pressure during pregnancy can affect child in later life

High blood pressure during pregnancy can affect a child’s thinking skills throughout its life, research suggests.

Scientists studied 398 men born between 1934 and 1944 whose mothers’ blood pressure during pregnancy was recorded in medical records. The men were tested for language skills, maths reasoning, and visual and spatial ability at the age of 20 and again at an average age of 69.

Men whose mothers experienced high blood pressure while pregnant performed less well than those whose mothers never suffered. On average, they scored 4.36 points lower on the tests at 69.