Miscarriage and risk of cardiovascular disease

In a nationally representative sample (the Health 2000 Survey) comprising 3,937 Finnish women aged 30-99 years, we examined the association of miscarriage (assessed by questionnaire) with risk of cardiovascular disease (assessed by physician's examination and linkages to hospital discharge and drug reimbursement registers). We considered age, smoking, body mass index, waist/hip ratio, physical activity, education, number of previous pregnancies, blood pressure, and fasting blood glucose and cholesterol as potentially confounding factors in the analysis. In women 50-74 years of age who had experienced pregnancy, history of miscarriage tended to be associated with a higher risk of myocardial infarction (age-adjusted odds ratio (OR): 2.1, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.0-4.3), and the risk increased significantly with the number of miscarriages (age-adjusted OR per miscarriage: 1.4, 95% CI: 1.1-1.8). These results suggest that women who experience repeated miscarriages may be at an increased risk of cardiovascular disease later in life.