Influence of early-life body mass index and systolic blood pressure on left ventricle in adulthood – the Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns Study

AbstractBackground Increased left ventricular mass (LVM) predicts cardiovascular events and mortality. The objective of this study was to determine whether early-life exposures to body mass index (BMI) and systolic blood pressure (SPB) affects the left ventricular structure in adulthood.Methods We used longitudinal data from a 31-year follow-up to examine the associations between early-life (between ages 6–18) BMI and SPB on LVM in an adult population (N = 1864, aged 34–49). The burden of early-life BMI and SBP was defined as area under the curve.Results After accounting for contemporary adult determinants of LVM, early-life BMI burden associated significantly with LVM (3.61 g/SD increase in early-life BMI; [1.94 − 5.28], p 25 kg/m2) associated with 4.7% (2.5–6.9%, p 30kg/m2) resulted in a 21% (17.3–32.9%, p