Physical Activity, Fitness, and Cardiac Autonomic Function among Adults Born Postterm.

Recent studies have suggested that adverse outcomes of postterm birth (≥42 completed weeks of gestation), including increased cardiometabolic risk factors, impaired glucose metabolism, and obesity, may extend into adulthood. We studied interconnected determinants of cardiovascular health, including physical activity (based on accelerometry for two weeks), muscular strength (handgrip strength), cardiorespiratory fitness (4-min step test), and cardiac autonomic function (heart rate recovery, heart rate variability, and baroreflex sensitivity) among 46-year-old adults from the Northern Finland Birth Cohort (NFBC) born postterm (n = 805) and at term (n = 2,645). Adults born postterm undertook vigorous-intensity physical activity 2.0 min/day (95% CI 0.4, 3.7) less than term-born adults when adjusted for sex, age, and maternal- and pregnancy-related covariates in multiple linear regression. Postterm birth was associated with reduced cardiorespiratory fitness based on a higher peak heart rate (2.1 bpm, 95% CI 0.9, 3.4) and slower heart rate recovery 30 s after the step test (-0.7 bpm, 95% CI -1.3, -0.1). Postterm birth was associated with lower vigorous-intensity physical activity and cardiorespiratory fitness and slower heart rate recovery in middle age. Our findings reinforce previous suggestions that postterm birth should be included as a perinatal risk factor for adult cardiometabolic disease.
(© The Author(s) 2024. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.)