The association between perception of health during pregnancy and the risk of cardiovascular disease: a prospective study

There is some evidence that self-rated perceptions of health are predictive of objective health outcomes, including cardiovascular disease, and mortality. The objective of this study was to examine the prospective association between perceptions of health during pregnancy and cardiovascular risk factors of mothers 21 years after the pregnancy. Data used were from the Mater University Study of Pregnancy (MUSP), a community-based prospective birth cohort study begun in Brisbane, Australia, in 1981. Logistic regression analyses were conducted. Data were available for 3692 women. Women who perceived themselves as not having a straight forward pregnancy had twice the odds (adjusted OR 2.0, 95 % CI 1.1-3.8) of being diagnosed with heart disease 21 years after the pregnancy when compared with women with a straight forward pregnancy (event rate of 5.2 versus 2.6 %). Women who experienced complications (other than serious pregnancy complications) during their pregnancy were also at 30 % increased odds (adjusted OR 1.3, 95 % CI 1.0-1.6) of having hypertension 21 years later (event rate of 25.7 versus 20 %). As a whole, our study suggests that pregnant women who perceived that they had complications and did not have a straight forward pregnancy were likely to experience poorer cardiovascular outcomes 21 years after that pregnancy.