BOSTON, July 4 — New US research has found that that women who experience high blood pressure during pregnancy are more likely to develop cardiovascular risk factors such as high blood pressure, diabetes, and high cholesterol after pregnancy later in life.

Carried out by researchers from Brigham and Women's Hospital and the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, the new study set out to look at how preeclampsia and gestational hypertension, common pregnancy complications which involve high blood pressure, may affect the chance of developing cardiovascular risk factors after pregnancy.

Previous studies have already shown that high blood pressure during pregnancy increases the risk of a heart attack or stroke later in life, however less is known about the association between the risk factors for these diseases and preeclampsia and gestational hypertension, which develop for the first time during pregnancy and return to normal after delivery.

To investigate further, the team looked at 58,671 women who had given birth at least once and followed them for an average of 25 to 32 years after the first pregnancy.

They found that women who had high blood pressure during their first pregnancy were more likely to develop high blood pressure, diabetes, and high cholesterol after the pregnancy, when compared to those with normal blood pressure during pregnancy.

More specifically, women with preeclampsia or gestational hypertension had a two- to three-fold increased rate of developing high blood pressure, a 70 per cent higher rate of type 2 diabetes, and a 30 per cent higher rate of high cholesterol than women who had normal blood pressure in pregnancy.

In addition, these risk factors for cardiovascular disease occurred shortly after pregnancy and persisted for decades, and women with high blood pressure during more than one pregnancy were also even more likely to develop high blood pressure, diabetes, and high cholesterol.

"Preeclampsia and gestational hypertension are common pregnancy complications that can alert women and their health care providers about their future cardiovascular health,” commented one of the study's authors Jennifer Stuart.

"Women who experience preeclampsia or gestational hypertension should tell their doctor and adopt a heart healthy diet and lifestyle — just like they would if they had a family history of cardiovascular disease — to reduce cardiovascular risk and delay disease onset.”

The results can be found published online in Annals of Internal Medicine. — AFP-Relaxnews