A child’s long-term heart health may be influenced before birth, according to a new study showing that pregnancy complications are associated with poorer cardiovascular health in offspring more than two decades later.
The study found that young adults whose mothers experienced high blood pressure during pregnancy, including gestational hypertension, pre-eclampsia or eclampsia, were more likely to show signs of early artery damage, along with higher blood pressure, increased body mass index and elevated blood sugar compared with their peers.
The findings add to growing evidence that cardiovascular risk can be passed from one generation to the next through a combination of biological, environmental and behavioural factors.
It is important to ensure people maintain good health from childhood into young adulthood, so that if or when someone becomes a parent, they pass on the best opportunity for good health to their children.
Study authors analysed nearly 1,350 mother-child pairs enrolled in the Future of Families and Child Well-Being Study, which recruited mothers and their newborns between 1998 and 2000 in 20 U.S. cities and followed the children into adulthood.
Using delivery hospital records, the researchers identified whether mothers had experienced pregnancy complications, including hypertensive disorders of pregnancy, gestational diabetes and preterm birth before 37 weeks. These complications are becoming increasingly common and now affect nearly one in four pregnancies in the United States.
The investigators then assessed the cardiovascular health of the offspring at age 22 using blood pressure measurements, blood tests, body mass index calculations and carotid artery ultrasound scans to detect early signs of arterial injury.
They compared young adults who had been exposed to each complication with those who had not, while accounting for factors such as household income, maternal education, birth weight differences and smoking during pregnancy.
At approximately 22 years of age, participants whose mothers had high blood pressure during pregnancy had:
- Higher body mass index, averaging 2.8 additional BMI points
- Higher diastolic blood pressure by 2.3 mm Hg
- Higher blood sugar levels, with HbA1c increased by 0.2 percentage points
- Thicker carotid artery walls, by about 0.02 mm
Although this increase in artery wall thickness appears small, the researchers estimate it corresponds to roughly three to five years of additional vascular ageing. In other words, these young adults had arteries that appeared older and less healthy than expected for their age, potentially increasing their future risk of heart disease.
Other pregnancy complications were also linked to long-term effects:
- Exposure to gestational diabetes was associated with poorer blood pressure and some evidence of arterial thickening.
- Preterm birth was associated with higher blood sugar levels in early adulthood.
With pregnancy complications becoming more common, these findings underscore the importance of improving health before and during pregnancy to reduce cardiovascular risk in the next generation.
There is evidence that both parents’ health at the time of conception and during pregnancy influences a child’s health. Promoting health from an early age, like exercising regularly, eating healthfully, never smoking and getting enough sleep, is not just meant for an individual, but doing so may help future generations be healthier, too. However, the authors stress that increased risk does not mean poor health is inevitable.
Most heart disease is preventable. Mothers who experience high blood pressure or high blood sugar during pregnancy, or if the child is born early, does not absolutely mean that the child will have worse health as an adult. However, it is advisable to monitor the child’s health behaviours.
Source: Northwestern University
Image Credit: iStock
