Maternal preeclampsia and bone mineral density of the adult

STUDY DESIGN: We evaluated skeletal health in participants of the Helsinki Study of Very Low Birthweight Adults: 144 born at very low birthweight and 139 born at term. From the very low birthweight and term offspring a respective 32 and 11 were born from pregnancy complicated by preeclampsia. We measured bone mineral density at age 18.5 to 27.1 years by dual X-ray absorptiometry. RESULTS: Very low birthweight adults exposed to maternal preeclampsia had higher lumbar spine Z score (mean � 0.44, compared with � 1.07 in very low birthweight unexposed adults, P ¼ .002), femoral neck Z score (� 0.05 vs � 0.53, P ¼ .003) and whole body bone mineral density Z score (� 0.14 vs � 0.72, P ¼ .001). Corresponding Z scores for those born at term were � 0.02 (preeclampsia) and � 0.45(nopreeclampsia)forlumbarspine(P ¼.2),0.78and0.08 for femoral neck (P ¼ .02) and 0.02 and � 0.31 for whole body bone mineral density Z score (P ¼ .08). The results survived adjustment for offspring current height, body mass index, leisure time physical activity, socioeconomic position, smoking, and maternal smoking during pregnancy, and maternal prepregnancy body mass index. CONCLUSION: Young adults exposed to maternal preeclampsia have higher bone mineral density than those not exposed. This difference is seen among those born at very low birthweight and seems also to be present among those born at term.