Health of children born to mothers who had preeclampsia: a population-based cohort study

Objective

We assessed whether preeclampsia correlates with the long-term postnatal health of the offspring.

Study Design

We conducted a population-based cohort study of 1,618,481 singletons born in Denmark (1978-2004) with up to 27 years of follow-up. We used Cox regression to estimate the associations between preeclampsia and long-term health outcomes of the offspring.

Results

Children born at term exposed to preeclampsia had an increased risk of a variety of diseases, such as endocrine, nutritional, and metabolic diseases (incidence rate ratio, 1.6; 95% confidence interval, 1.5–1.7), and diseases of the blood and blood-forming organs (incidence rate ratio, 1.5; 95% confidence interval, 1.3–1.8). Children born preterm exposed to preeclampsia had a similar pattern of hospitalizations compared with the children born preterm unexposed to preeclampsia, although they had a decreased risk of cerebral palsy (incidence rate ratio, 0.7; 95% confidence interval, 0.6–0.9).

Conclusion

Preeclampsia was associated with an increased risk of being hospitalized for a number of diseases, especially in the children born at term.

Key words: cohort study, eclampsia, hospitalization, preeclampsia, pregnancy