Excessive gestational weight gain increases long-term maternal cardiovascular risk

Pregnant women with excessive gestational weight gain had a higher cardiovascular risk profile in midlife, according to a new study published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Women’s Health. Click here to read the article now.

Franya Hutchins, PhD, from the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health, and coauthors used to main measures to determine a woman’s cardiovascular disease risk: the atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) risk score and al measure of the C-reactive protein (CRP), an inflammatory biomarker. The investigators measured these variables at baseline and at 10 follow-up visits, for a total of 20 years of follow-up.

Having a history of excessive gestational weight gain was associated with a 29.6% higher ASCVD risk score at baseline. “In the model including confounders and midlife abdominal obesity, excessive gestational weight gain remained associated with a 9.1% higher ASCVD score,” stated the investigators. Excessive gestational weight gain was associated with an 89.2% higher baseline CRP level. With the addition of cofounders and midlife abdominal obesity, excessive gestational weight gain remained associated with a 31.5% higher mean CRP.

“In this group of women, a history of excessive gestational weight gain was associated with a small but statistically significant higher ASCVD score and a moderate, statistically significant higher mean CRP level into midlife,” says Journal of Women’s Health Editor-in-Chief Susan G. Kornstein, MD, Executive Director of the Virginia Commonwealth University Institute for Women’s Health, Richmond, VA.

Research reported in this publication was supported by the National Institutes of Health under Award Numbers U01NR004061, U01AG012505, U01AG012535, U01AG02531, U01AG012539, U01AG012546, U01AG012553. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

About the Journal

Journal of Women’s Health, published monthly, is a core multidisciplinary journal dedicated to the diseases and conditions that hold greater risk for or are more prevalent among women, as well as diseases that present differently in women. Led by Editor-in-Chief Susan G. Kornstein, MD, Executive Director of the Virginia Commonwealth University Institute for Women’s Health, Richmond, VA, the Journal covers the latest advances and clinical applications of new diagnostic procedures and therapeutic protocols for the prevention and management of women’s healthcare issues. Complete tables of content and a sample issue may be viewed on the Journal of Women’s Health website. Journal of Women’s Health is the official journal of the Society for Women’s Health Research.

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Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers is known for establishing authoritative peer-reviewed journals in many promising areas of science and biomedical research. A complete list of the firm’s more than 100 journals, books, and newsmagazines is available on the Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers website.