Poorer heart health during pregnancy linked to developmental delay in kids

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2026-06-24 01:00

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Mothers with poorer heart health during pregnancy may be more likely to have kids with developmental delay, according to Japanese research. The study looked at eight factors to assess heart health, including diet, physical activity, nicotine exposure, sleep health, body mass index, blood fats, blood glucose, and blood pressure. They found that developmental delay at four years of age occurred in 16.8% of kids whose mothers had the worst heart health, compared to 8.8% of kids whose mothers had the best heart health.

News release

From: JAMA

Maternal Cardiovascular Health During Pregnancy and Offspring Developmental Delay

About The Study: In this cohort study of mother and offspring pairs in Japan, better maternal cardiovascular health during pregnancy was associated with a lower risk of offspring developmental delay at age 4 years.

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Research JAMA, Web page Please link to the article in online versions of your report (the URL will go live after the embargo ends).

Journal/
conference: JAMA Network Open

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: Tohoku University, Japan

Funder: This work was supported by grants JP24K13458 (Dr Ishikuro) and 25KJ0582 (Dr Ohseto) from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology KAKENHI; grants JP17km0105001, JP21tm0124005, and JP21tm0424601 from the Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development to Tohoku University; and a grant from The Seiichi Imai Memorial Foundation (2023) (Dr Ohseto).

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