Cardiovascular disease has long been one of the major causes of mortality and morbidity worldwide. Growing evidence suggests the increasing association of maternal diabetes and CVD in offspring. This study aims to assess associations between maternal diabetes diagnosed before or during pregnancy and the early onset of cardiovascular disease in the offspring.
This is a population-based cohort study set in Danish national health registries. The research included all 2,432,000 liveborn children in Denmark without congenital heart disease during 1977-2016. The primary outcome measure was the early onset of CVD and its association with a maternal history of CVD or maternal diabetic complications.
During up to 40 years of follow-up, 91,311 offspring of mothers without diabetes and 1,153 offspring of mothers with diabetes were diagnosed with CVD. Offspring of mothers with diabetes had a 29% increased rate of early onset of CVD, compared to 13.07% increased create of onset of CVD in offspring unexposed to maternal diabetes. The effects were found to be more profound in mothers with a history of CVD.
The research concluded that children of mothers with diabetes had increased rates of early onset of CVD from childhood to early adulthood. The risk of cardiovascular disease was further increased in the offspring of mothers who had a history of CVD or diabetic complications.
Ref: https://www.bmj.com/content/367/bmj.l6398
