Hypertension isn't just risky for a pregnant woman, it can have
lasting consequences for a child's cognitive ability, a new
study suggests. A Finnish study found that men whose mothers'
pregnancies had complications from hypertensive disorders scored
lower on tests of cognitive ability than those whose mothers did
not have high blood pressure during pregnancy. The study appears
in the journal Neurology. About 10% of all pregnancies become
complicated by hypertensive disorders, such as preeclampsia, the
study said. Such conditions are linked to premature births and
small baby body size, factors that are also linked with lower
cognitive ability. Researchers identified 398 men who had taken
a basic ability test for the Finnish Defense Forces twice:
around age 20 and again around age 69. In this way, study
authors were able to look at verbal, arithmetic and visuospatial
reasoning scores. Visuospatial means understanding visual
representations and their spatial relationships. Information
about the mothers' blood p