Familial aggregation of blood pressure in 558 adopted children.
Blood pressure was measured in each member of 398 French-Canadian families with at least one adopted child of the same ethnic origin. Measurements were made at home by a nurse, usually with the subject seated. One comparison per family between parents and randomly chosen index children was made, using age- and sex-adjusted scores. The correlation in blood pressure scores between parents and natural children was highly significant (P less than 0.001), at 10.2% for systolic and 13.7% for diastolic in 140 homes with at least one natural child, but the correlation between parents and adopted children was nonsignificant, at 0.81% and 1.0%, in 398 homes with at least one adopted child. The correlation between pairs of natural children was significant (P less than 0.05), at 7.84% for systolic and 8.41% for diastolic, in 80 homes with more than one natural child but nonsignificant, at 0.49% and 1.69%, respectively, for pairs of adopted children in 138 families with more than one adopted child. It is concluded that heredity explains most of the familial resemblance of blood pressure in children.
D000293:Adolescent; D000300:Adoption; D000328:Adult; D001794:Blood Pressure; D002170:Canada; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000235:genetics*; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged