Background and goal of the study
In this study we aimed to evaluate whether women with advanced age at their first birth have more intermediate cardiovascular and metabolic health (cardiometabolic) outcomes that occur by age 45.
Materials and Methods: This retrospective, longitudinal, population-based cohort study included women aged 34-39 at baseline (2004-2006) who were followed through until age 45. All data was extracted from a large comprehensive electronic medical record database from Clalit Health Services. Women at baseline were identified as parous or nulliparous and then followed up until 2016 and further divided into three groups: women who gave birth to their first child between the age ages of 34-39, those who gave birth to their first child between the ages of 40-44, and a group of persistent nulliparous women. The rate of both adverse pregnancy events and cardiometabolic diseases at age 45 were compared across these three groups and to women in the general population. Main outcomes measures included type 2 diabetes, obesity, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, and Framingham risk score.
Results: Over the follow-up, 952 women gave birth for the first time between the ages of 35-39, 673 gave birth between the ages of 40-44, and 8,354 women remained persistently nulliparous. Older women were found to have more gestational diabetes (6.9% vs 4.3% ,p-0.036) and preeclampsia  (4.0% vs 1.9%, p=0.015) we found no difference between the two parturients groups in the prevalence of cardiovascular and metabolic disease outcomes at age 45.  Older parturients also did not have more adverse cardiovascular outcomes when compared to the general population or persistent nulliparas.

Conclusions: In this study cohort, women who had their first birth at an older age did not have an increased risk for intermediate cardiovascular complications.


07 / Older maternal age and cardiovascular and metabolic disease outcomes: A retrospective cohort study using data from population-based electronic medical records