New York: Women with a history of pregnancy loss are at higher risk for cardiovascular disease later in life than other women, says a study.
"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," said Donna Parker from Memorial Hospital of Rhode Island in the US.
The study stemmed from the analysis of data from the maternity experiences of a sample of 77,701 women.
Of those, 30.3 percent reported a history of miscarriage, 2.2 percent a history of stillbirth, and 2.2 percent a history of both.
"We found that the adjusted odds for coronary heart disease in women who had one or more stillbirths was 1.27 (95 percent confidence interval (CI), which is a measure of reliability, 1.07-1.51) compared with women who had no stillbirths," Parker added.
"For women with a history of one miscarriage, the odds ratio was 1.19 (95 percent CI, 1.08-1.32). For women with a history of two or more miscarriages, the odds ratio was 1.18 (95 percent CI, 1.04-1.34) compared with no miscarriage," she said.
The researchers found no significant association of ischemic stroke and pregnancy loss.
The association between pregnancy loss and coronary heart disease appeared to be independent of hypertension, body mass index, waist-to-hip ratio and white blood cell count.
The study appeared in the journal Annals of Family Medicine.
