Hypertensive disorders of pregnancy (HDP) and gestational diabetes (GDM) are known to increase the risk of cardiovascular disease in women. Now, a study has investigated whether HDP and GDM affect children's cardiovascular health (CVH) based on four health metrics – BMI, blood pressure, total cholesterol, and glucose level. Among 3,317 mother-child pairs studied, 7.9% of mothers developed HDP, 12.1% developed GDM, and 2.5% developed both HDP and GDM.
At a median age of 11.6 years, 55% of children had at least one non-ideal health metric, indicating less-than-ideal CVH. In addition, mothers with HDP (adjusted risk ratio [aRR] – 1.16), GDM (aRR – 1.11), and both HDP and GDM (aRR – 1.17) had a higher risk of having children with less-than-ideal CVH after 10-14 years of delivery. These findings suggest that pregnancy complications can affect the CVH of children, and children born to mothers…
