Caesarean delivery seems to increase blood pressure in young adulthood

Young adults born through caesarean section (CS) delivery tend to have higher blood pressure, a recent Thailand study has found.

Drawing from a birth cohort in Chiang Mai, the researchers measured blood pressure in 57 young adults who were born by CS and in 575 vaginally delivered controls. All participants were born from 1989–1990 and assessments were performed at 2010, when they were around 20 years of age. Other variables of interest were fasting blood glucose, lipid profile, carotid intima-media thickness, and anthropometric factors.

Blood pressure differed significantly between participants born through CS or vaginally. Systolic blood pressure, for example, was 6.2-mm Hg higher in the former group, a difference that achieved statistical significance (p<0.001). The same was true for diastolic blood pressure (3.2-mm Hg difference; p=0.029) and mean arterial pressure (4.1-mm Hg difference; p=0.003).

Adjustments for covariates attenuated these differences, especially for diastolic blood pressure, which became statistically comparable between groups. Systolic blood pressure (p=0.006) and mean arterial pressure (p=0.024) remained significantly higher in CS participants.

Moreover, rates of systolic prehypertension and hypertension were much higher in young adults born through CS than in those born vaginally. In turn, CS participants were nearly twice as likely to develop abnormal blood pressure (adjusted relative risk, 1.85, 95 percent confidence interval, 1.15–2.98; p=0.011).

Other metabolic risk factors, such as anthropometry, lipid profile, glucose metabolism, and obesity, did not differ between groups.