Twin pregnancy: is it a risk factor for long-term cardiovascular disease?

Abstract

Objective: To investigate whether twin pregnancy increases the risk for long-term maternal cardiovascular disease (CVD).

Study design: A retrospective population-based cohort study compared the incidence of long-term CVD in a cohort of women with and without a previous twin delivery.

Setting: Deliveries occurred between the years 1988 and 2012.

Patients: Patients who had a twin birth between years 1988 and 2012 were included in the study, patient that had a singleton delivery included in the control group.

Main outcome measures: CVD was divided into four categories according to severity and type. Kaplan–Meier survival curve was used to estimate cumulative incidence of cardiovascular hospitalizations. Cox proportional hazards model was used to estimate the adjusted hazard ratios (HR) for CVD.

Results: During the study period, there were 100 387 women that met the inclusion criteria, 4.6% (n = 4647) delivered twins at least once during the period. The incidence of CVD was 1% in women who had a twin delivery and 1.12% in women who had a singleton delivery. There was no difference in the cumulative incidence of cardiovascular hospitalizations among women who had twin deliveries as compared with singletons. When performing a Cox proportional hazard model, a history of twin delivery did not increase the risk for long-term maternal cardiovascular hospitalizations (adjusted HR = 1.0, 95% CI = 0.8–1.1, p = 0.698).

Conclusions: Twin pregnancy is not associated with an increased risk for long-term maternal CVD.

• Fertility treatment
• long term cardiovascular disease
• twin pregnancy

Declaration of interest

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of this article.

Notes

* Abstract was presented at the 34th SMFM Annual Meeting, February 2014, New Orleans, USA.