Prevention & lipidsCohort study
Adverse pregnancy outcomes, familial predisposition, and cardiovascular risk: a Swedish nationwide study
- Nationwide population-based cohort study
- quasi-experimental family comparison design
Authors' conclusion
Sisters of women with APOs face a moderately increased risk of CVD, suggesting a genetic and/or environmental influence on the association between APOs and CVDs.
Study context
- Population
- Primiparous women without prior cardiovascular disease (CVD) with singleton births in the Swedish Medical Birth Register, 1992–2019
- Participants
- 165,628 / 60,769 / 992,108
- Exposure
- APO-exposed women and APO-free sisters vs unrelated APO-free comparators
- APOn = 165,628
- APO-free sistersn = 60,769
- APO-free comparatorsn = 992,108reference
- Outcome
- Major adverse cardiac events and its components: ischaemic heart disease, HF, cerebrovascular events
- Follow-up
- Median 14 years
Main finding
As reported in the abstract
APO-free sisters vs APO-free comparatorsAdjusted hazard ratio (95% CI)
major adverse cardiac event
1.39(1.13–1.71)
HF
1.65(1.14–2.39)
cerebrovascular events
1.37(1.04–1.72)
Observational data: associations, not effects.
Further findings
Within-family analysis: APO-free sisters vs APO-exposed sisters
- Lower CVD rates in APO-free sisters than APO-exposed counterparts, except no significant difference in cerebrovascular events
Original publication
Adverse pregnancy outcomes, familial predisposition, and cardiovascular risk: a Swedish nationwide study. Eur Heart J. Published 7 February 2025. doi:10.1093/eurheartj/ehae889
Summarised from the published abstract; every number is checked against it