TY - JOUR T1 - Could dehydration in infancy lead to high blood pressure? JF - Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health JO - J Epidemiol Community Health SP - 142 LP - 143 DO - 10.1136/jech.2005.040006 VL - 60 IS - 2 AU - George Davey Smith AU - Sam Leary AU - Sam Ness AU - The ALSPAC Study Team Y1 - 2006/02/01 UR - http://jech.bmj.com/content/60/2/142.abstract N2 - There is considerable evidence that early life exposures influence later blood pressure1 and the disease end point most strongly associated with blood pressure—haemorrhagic stroke—is also related to indicators of early life adversity.2 In particular, the number of siblings that a person had was positively associated with haemorrhagic stroke risk.2 A small case-control study found that an infant or perinatal death in one or more siblings was associated with increased risk of stroke.3 Both haemorrhagic stroke4 and blood pressure5 declined across the 20th century in developed countries, and both show cohort effects, such that each subsequent birth cohort has lower haemorrhagic stroke risk and lower levels of blood pressure than previous birth cohorts.5 Across countries infant mortality rates 70 years ago correlate strongly with current stroke mortality.6 One early life factor that would be related to all these indicators of early life exposure is infant diarrhoea. We postulate that severe dehydrating diarrhoea in infancy is associated with higher subsequent blood pressure. The … ER -