Pregnancy related stroke risk higher in younger women, says study
Posted on: 28/Oct/2016 11:01:38 AM
A new study has said that pregnancy may increase the risk of stroke in younger women, but not in older women expecting a baby. The study was conducted by researchers from the Columbia University Medical Centre and the New York-Presbyterian Hospital in the US. The study appears in the journal JAMA Neurology.
Say the researchers, Pregnancy-associated stroke occurs in an estimated 34 out of 100,000 women. The incidence of pregnancy-associated strokes is rising, and that could be explained by the fact that more women are delaying childbearing until they are older, when the overall risk of stroke is higher. However, very few studies have compared the incidence of stroke in pregnant and non-pregnant women who are the same age. We have been warning older women that pregnancy may increase their risk of stroke, but this study shows that their stroke risk appears similar to women of the same age who are not pregnant. But in women under 35, pregnancy significantly increased the risk of stroke. In fact, one in five strokes in women from that age group were related to pregnancy. We need more research to better understand the causes of pregnancy-associated stroke, so that we can identify young women at the highest risk and prevent these devastating events.
