Better cardiovascular health in pregnancy was linked to longer time to a post-delivery diagnosis of cardiometabolic conditions.The study used a modified pregnancy-specific version of the "Life's Essential 8" heart-health checklist.Better scores related to hypertensive disorders of pregnancy, glucose, body mass index, and sleep were linked to longer time to diagnosis of a chronic metabolic condition.
Better cardiovascular health during pregnancy was linked to better cardiometabolic health in the subsequent 7 years, a cohort study found.
Using a Life's Essential 8 framework modified for pregnancy-specific heart health (mLE8, higher scores are better on the 100-point scale), each 10-point increase was linked to a longer time to incident diagnosis of both chronic hypertensive conditions (time ratio [TR] 1.26, 95% CI 1.11-1.42) and chronic metabolic conditions (TR 1.20, 95% CI 1.11-1.29).
When patients with gestational diabetes or hypertensive disorders of pregnancy were excluded from analysis, associations were generally similar in magnitude and significance, reported Ellen Francis, PhD, of the Rutgers School of Public Health in Piscataway, New Jersey, and colleagues in JAMA Network Open.
