High Risk Of Infant Death Associated With Blood Pressure Issues During Pregnancy

Oct, 2022 - By WMR

Researchers believe that the mother's hypertension throughout her pregnancy may have contributed to her subsequent immunological diseases, metabolic syndrome, and psychological issues.

One of the major causes of disease and death among mothers and their unborn children, hypertensive disorder of pregnancy affects up to 10% of pregnancies globally. It has also been linked to a number of illnesses in kids later in life, including immunological diseases, metabolic syndrome, and psychiatric disorders. However, there is little proof that hypertension disorder of pregnancy causes long-term mortality in offspring from infancy through adolescence and beyond.

The study followed 2.4 million Danes born between 1978 and 2018 from the date of birth to the date of death, emigration, or December 31, 2018, whichever occurred first. The researchers drew on data from Danish national health registers. Potentially significant variables were the sex of the kids, the mother's age at childbirth, the mother's education, income, living situation, smoking during pregnancy, and medical history. The findings indicate that compared to the non-exposed group, all cause of mortality was greater in children exposed to HDP through their mothers. The researchers recognise that as this is an observational study, they were unable to rule out the influence of a sedentary lifestyle in the offspring and several unmeasured characteristics such as, obesity, a poor diet, alcohol.

However, this was a sizable, extensive study that lasted a long time and was based on reliable, national health data. In order to take into consideration the impact of genetic factors and certain unmeasured family factors, extra sibling analysis was performed on the results, and the results were consistent, indicating that the results are robust.

In light of this, the researchers claim that this study offers compelling evidence that maternal hypertension disorder of pregnancy, particularly eclampsia and severe pre-eclampsia, is linked to higher chances of overall mortality and various cause-specific mortalities in kids from birth through young adulthood. It is necessary to conduct more study to determine the physiological mechanisms behind the relationship between maternal hypertension disorder of pregnancy and infant mortality.