Cara Murez HealthDay Reporter
(Health Day)
Thursday, Feb. 2, 2023 (HealthDay News) — Major pregnancy complications such as preeclampsia and premature birth should be recognized as lifelong risk factors for heart disease in women, new research suggests. I’m here.
Women who experience any of the five major complications of pregnancy are at increased risk of ischemic heart disease up to 46 years after giving birth, says a study published Feb. 1. BMJMore.
The five complications are premature birth (less than 37 weeks of gestation), small baby for gestational age at birth, pre-eclampsia (blood pressure disorders), other pregnancy related blood pressure disorders, and gestational diabetes.
“Women with poor pregnancy outcomes should be considered for early prophylactic assessment and long-term risk reduction to prevent the development of ischemic heart disease,” the study authors said in a journal news release. The research team was led by Dr. Casey Crump of the Icahn School of Medicine in Mount Sinai, New York City.
Nearly one-third of women experience an adverse pregnancy outcome, the authors say in a background note. Heart disease is the leading cause of death for women worldwide.
For this study, researchers from the United States and Sweden identified more than 2.1 million Swedish women with no history of heart disease. Between 1973 and her 2015, each gave birth to her one live infant at an average age of 27.
Using medical records, researchers tracked heart disease cases from birth date through 2018. This was an average follow-up period of 25 years.
They considered maternal age, number of children, education, income, body mass index, history of smoking, hypertension, diabetes, or high cholesterol.
More than 83,000 (nearly 4%) women with an average age of 58 years were diagnosed with heart disease.
Researchers found that the relative rate of heart disease increased 1.7 times in women with a history of preterm birth and 1.5 times in women with preeclampsia 10 years after giving birth. In addition, they doubled in women with other hypertensive disorders during pregnancy.In addition, the risk of heart disease was 1.3 times higher in those with gestational diabetes and those who gave birth to infants who were small for their gestational age. increased by 1.1 times.
Women who experienced some adverse pregnancy outcomes were at even greater risk.
These risks remained significantly elevated 30 to 46 years after delivery. They are only partially explained by genetic or environmental factors shared within the family, the researchers noted.
However, this study cannot prove direct causation.
sauce: BMJMoreNews Release, February 1, 2023
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