Pregnancy Loss Ups Risk of Heart Diseases in Later Years: Study

Women with a history of pregnancy loss are likely to develop heart diseases in later years, finds a study.

Experts at the Center for Primary Care and Prevention at the Memorial Hospital in Rhode Island used data of 77,701 women to note the association between birthing experiences and heart problems during older age. They found almost 30 percent of these participants had a history of pregnancy loss, 2.2 percent gave birth to still born babies and 2.2 percent reportedly experienced both. The study also considered other variables like blood pressure, BMI levels, waist-to-hip measurement and white-blood cells counts.

"We found that the adjusted odds for coronary heart disease in women who had one or more stillbirths was 1.27 or 95 percent confidence interval (CI), which is a measure of reliability compared with women who had not still births," said Donna Parker, study author and director of community health and research at the CPCP, reports the New-Medical. Net.

It was noted the odds ratio for cardiovascular diseases in women who had one miscarriage was 1.19 and 1.18 for those with a history of two or more miscarriages. However, the results could not confirm a direct relation between miscarriages and ischemic strokes in women. The authors suggest women who suffer pregnancy and birthing complications should keep a strict watch on their health status and habits like smoking, drinking and poor eating habits to allay the possibility of deadly health conditions.

"These findings contribute to the growing body of evidence that the metabolic, hormonal and hemostatic pathway alterations that are associated with a pregnancy loss may contribute to the development of coronary heart disease in adulthood," added Parker, reports the New-Medical. Net. l

More information is available online in the journal Annals of Family Medicine.