Maternal hypertensive disorders during pregnancy and self-reported cognitive impairment of the offspring seventy years later: The Helsinki Birth Cohort Study.

The authors included 876 participants of the Helsinki Birth Cohort Study 1934-44 born after normotensive, preeclamptic or hypertensive pregnancies defined by using mother's blood pressure and urinary protein measurements at maternity clinics and birth hospitals. The participants completed a psychological questionnaire including questions on cognitive failures and dysexecutive functioning at an average age of 69.3 (SD = 3.1) years. In comparison to the offspring born after normotensive pregnancies, the offspring born after preeclamptic pregnancies reported more frequent complaints of cognitive failures, distractibility and false triggering. Further, among women, also maternal hypertension without proteinuria associated with more frequent complaints of cognitive failures, forgetfulness and false triggering. CONCLUSION: Hypertensive disorders during pregnancy are associated with more frequent subjective complaints of cognitive failures of the offspring in old age.