This proposal is part of LongITools project (B3289).

Blood pressure tracks from childhood to adulthood, and elevated blood pressure in childhood or adolescence is associated with several intermediate markers of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and with CVD events and mortality in adulthood. There is a growing body of evidence showing that ambient environmental exposures, such as air pollution, noise and many characteristics of the built environment are associated with high blood pressure/hypertension in adulthood, and some associations with blood pressure have also been observed in children.

Early-life, especially prenatal and early postnatal, is a period of rapid development and particularly vulnerable to environmental factors, and adverse exposures in this period could lead to long-term health effects, including higher risk of CVD. Some studies have shown associations between prenatal ambient environmental factors and blood pressure in children, including some measures of the built environment (e.g., facility density, facility richness and building density), noise, temperature, and air pollution. Investigating whether early-life ambient environmental factors are also associated with changes in blood pressure in different developmental periods will further contribute to the understanding of the importance of environmental exposures to the risk of hypertension across the life-course.

Using data from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC), we aim to assess the association of a range of ambient environmental exposures in early-life with changes in systolic (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) during three developmental periods: childhood, adolescence, and early adulthood. We will also seek to replicate the associations found in ALSPAC in other independent European cohorts part of the LongITools project (Generation R, EDEN, PANIC and NFBC 1986).