Pregnancy history offers insights into risk of CV disease mortality: Study

A study published in the journal Paediatric and Perinatal Epidemiology revealed that around five to ten percent of people develop a problem with their cardiovascular system during pregnancy in response to the physiological changes occurring and/or problems with the placenta, like “preeclampsia.”

While some disorders are rather benign, like high blood pressure during pregnancy, others are true emergencies, including liver failure, kidney failure, and seizures.

In the study, the researchers looked at the specific order and severity of hypertensive disorders of pregnancy throughout women’s lifetime number of pregnancies with the help of compulsory birth registry and public healthcare system in Norway.

Previous studies have concluded that having a hypertensive disorder of pregnancy doubles your risk of heart attack and stroke. Researchers found that some people have severe risks compared to previous estimates, with almost 10-fold increased risk.

“These people at high risk have a rare pattern of more than one hypertensive disorder in their reproductive history, and they delivered their pregnancies early, which may indicate more severe conditions”, said Sage Wyatt, PhD-candidate at the Department of Global Public Health and Primary Care, University of Bergen.

He also found that some patterns on pregnancy histories that include hypertensive disorders are not associated with heart attack and stroke at all.

“This study adds to the evidence that CVD mortality cannot be predicted by a history of HDP alone but must be predicted in the context of multiple factors across our lifetime reproductive history” concluded Wyatt.

Reference: Sage Wyatt, Liv Grimstvedt Kvalvik, Aditi Singh, Kari Klungsøyr, Truls Østbye, Rolv Skjærven; Heterogeneity in the risk of cardiovascular disease mortality after the hypertensive disorders of pregnancy across mothers' lifetime reproductive history; Journal: Paediatric and Perinatal Epidemiology; DOI: 10.1111/ppe.13059