Objective: Hypertension in pregnancy and preeclampsia have been linked to poor out-comes in cognitive, mental and psychomotor development; however, few longitudinal studies have researched their effect on offspring motor development, particularly in late childhood and adolescence. The purpose of this study was to determine if maternal hyper-tensive diseases during pregnancy are a risk factor for compromised motor development at 10,14, and 17 years.

Study design: Longitudinal cohort study using data from the Western Australian Pregnancy Cohort Study (Raine).

Main outcome measure: Offspring (n = 2868) were classified by their maternal blood pressure profiles during pregnancy: normotension (n = 2133), hypertension (n = 626) and pre-eclampsia (n = 109). Offspring motor development, at 10, 14, and 17 years was measured by the Neuromuscular Developmental Index (NDI) of the McCarron Assessment of Motor Development (MAND).

Methods: Linear mixed models were used to compare outcomes between pregnancy groups.

Results: Offspring from pregnancies complicated by preeclampsia had poorer motor out-comes at all ages than offspring from either normotensive mothers (p 6 0.001) or those with hypertension (p = 0.002).

Conclusion: Hypertensive diseases during pregnancy, in particular preeclampsia, have long term and possibly permanent consequences for motor development of offspring.

©2014 International Society for the Study of Hypertension in Pregnancy

Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.