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A groundbreaking study led by researchers from the University of Bergen sheds light on the relationship between a woman’s pregnancy history and her risk of dying from cardiovascular diseases later in life.
Published in the Journal of the American Heart Association, the study delves into the significance of understanding a woman’s complete pregnancy history in assessing her risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality.
Associate Professor Liv Grimstvedt Kvalvik from the Department of Global Public Health and Primary Care at the University of Bergen, Norway, emphasized the importance of examining pregnancy history in women’s health research: “Pregnancy history is a unique feature of women’s health, readily available at no cost, and relevant to the most frequent cause of death facing women.”
The research, conducted in collaboration with the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences in the USA and colleagues at the University of Bergen, analyzed data from several Norwegian registries spanning from 1967 to 2020, encompassing over 800,000 women who survived to the age of 40.
The study aimed to determine the association between a woman’s total pregnancy history at age 40 and her relative risk of dying from atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD), a leading cause of cardiovascular mortality.
The findings revealed a compelling relationship between pregnancy history and ASCVD mortality risk: “Among women reaching 40 years of age, the risk of ASCVD mortality through 69 years of age increased with the number of complicated pregnancies in a strong dose-response fashion,” explained Kvalvik.
Women with a history of multiple complicated pregnancies, such as preterm delivery, preeclampsia, placental abruption, perinatal death, and low birth weight, faced a significantly higher risk of ASCVD mortality. Even within each level of total pregnancies, the risk increased with the number of complicated pregnancies experienced by age 40.
The study suggests that women with multiple complicated pregnancies by age 40 may face a 3-5-fold increased risk of ASCVD mortality compared to those with uncomplicated pregnancies. Conversely, women with a lower number of pregnancies without complications exhibited the lowest ASCVD mortality risk.
Kvalvik underscored the importance of early intervention based on pregnancy history: “Our findings support the potential use of complete pregnancy history to identify relatively young women who might benefit from interventions to reduce cardiovascular mortality and morbidity before other clinical indicators of CVD risk have fully emerged.”
This research provides valuable insights into the role of pregnancy history in assessing cardiovascular disease risk in women, highlighting the need for personalized interventions and preventive measures to safeguard women’s heart health.
