Hypertensive disorders of pregnancy (HDP), including gestational hypertension, preeclampsia, and eclampsia, contribute to increased maternal morbidity and mortality and long-term cardiovascular disease risk. It is unclear whether HDP arises from pregnancy-specific complications or preexisting maternal cardiovascular traits unmasked during pregnancy. This article evaluates whether cardiovascular health before pregnancy, assessed by the American Heart Association's Life's Essential 8 (LE8) score, is associated with HDP risk. The CARDIA (Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults) is a longitudinal cohort study of 5115 Black and White men and women, aged 18 to 30 years at baseline (1985-1986), and followed for over 30 years (nBlackWomen=1480; nWhiteWomen=1307). The LE8 score (range, 0-100) was calculated using health behaviors (diet, smoking, physical activity, sleep) and clinical metrics (body mass index, blood pressure, cholesterol, glucose). Cardiovascular health was categorized as low (LE8 <50), moderate (LE8 50-79), or high (LE8 ≥80). HDP was self-reported as gestational hypertension, preeclampsia, or eclampsia in pregnancies lasting ≥23 weeks. Generalized mixed models assessed the association between LE8 and HDP among 2036 pregnancies from 1227 women, adjusting for age, time-varying parity, education, income, follow-up time, cumulative births, and multiple gestation. Mean baseline age was 24.1 years, 48.7% were Black women, and 19.9% reported HDP. Women with HDP had lower baseline LE8 scores (77.0 versus 79.5; P<0.01). Compared with high cardiovascular health, moderate (odds ratio, 1.78 95% CI, 1.13-2.81) and low cardiovascular health (odds ratio, 3.95 95% CI, 1.05-14.88) were associated with increased HDP risk. Lower prepregnancy cardiovascular health is an independent risk factor for HDP. Improving cardiovascular health may reduce HDP risk.
Dodds et al. (Fri,) studied this question.