Could dehydration in infancy lead to high blood pressure?

Abstract
The Avon longitudinal study of parents and children (ALSPAC) is a population based study investigating the health and development of children (http://www.alspac.bris.ac.uk). Women living in three health districts of Bristol, England with expected delivery dates between April 1991 and December 1992 were eligible, 14 541 (85%) enrolled, and there were 14 049 singleton and twin live births. Ethical approval was obtained from the ALSPAC and local research ethics committees. In questionnaires filled out by mothers when the infant was 6 months of age eight cohort members were reported as having been admitted to hospital for dehydration. Of these six attended the 7 year old clinic, where blood pressure was recorded. Comparing these six with the cohort members who attended the clinic and who had not been admitted for dehydration (n = 7834), systolic and diastolic blood pressures were found to be higher (see table 1), although effect estimates were imprecise, were lower for systolic than for diastolic blood pressure, and the confidence intervals for the systolic blood pressure result overlapped the null. This difference was not attenuated by using multiple regression to adjust for potential confounding factors.