Abstract
INTRODUCTION: There are limited data on the prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors/diseases (diabetes, obesity, hypertension, and dyslipidemia) and their composite scores reflecting overall cardiovascular health among young (< 50 years old) married couples. METHODS: We have an established longitudinal prospective cohort of postpartum women with a history of hyperglycemia [pre-existing diabetes (PED; n = 101), overt diabetes in pregnancy (ODiP; n = 92), gestational diabetes (GDM; n = 643)], and normoglycemia (n = 183) in pregnancy and their spouses (n = 819). In this study, we report data from baseline cross-sectional evaluation of these 819 young couples regarding the burden of cardiovascular risk factors/diseases, their concordance and associations. RESULTS: The mean (SD) age was 33.5 (4.9) years for women and 36.9 (5.4) years for men, and the evaluation was performed at a median (IQR) postpartum interval of 30 (20-45) months. Diabetes, hypertension, obesity, and dyslipidemia were present in 25.0%, 6.9%, 25.6%, and 4.0% of women and 15.8%, 20.2%, 14.3%, and 8.2% of men, respectively. Among men, dysglycemia (diabetes/prediabetes) and adverse cardiovascular score (average/poor) showed a significant trend in progression according to the antenatal categories of their partner (highest in DIP, intermediate in GDM, and lowest in normoglycemia). The concordance was higher for adverse cardiovascular score (58.5%), overweight/obesity (48.7%), and dysglycemia (42.4%) compared to prehypertension/hypertension (29.2%) and hypercholesterolemia (8.2%). The odds ratios were significant for all associations evaluated, except for elevated blood pressure, being strongest (OR > 2.0) for overweight/obesity and adverse cardiovascular score. CONCLUSIONS: Nearly three in five young couples evaluated in the study showed concordance for adverse cardiovascular scores. The cardiovascular risk in men increased in a graded manner across the increasing severity of antenatal glycemic categories of their partners.