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Excess postpartum weight increased risk for diabetes, CVD
Women who maintain or continue gaining weight in the year after giving birth are at risk for diabetes and heart disease, according to study data published in Diabetes Care.
Ravi Retnakaran, MD, and colleagues at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto followed 305 women throughout pregnancy and the 12 months after birth to check them against metabolic and cardiovascular risk factors.
Ravi Retnakaran
The participants underwent cardiometabolic characterization at recruitment in late pregnancy and at 3 months and 12 months postpartum.
Three-quarters of the women who lost some “baby weight” within a year after giving birth maintained healthy cholesterol and blood pressure levels and insulin action. Test results for the remaining 80 women showed movement in an unhealthy direction; these elevated risk factors exhibited at 12 months postpartum were not witnessed at 3 months.
“That means that the 9-month window leading up to 1 year after birth is a critical time for women to ensure they are losing at least some of their pregnancy weight,” Retnakaran said in a press release.
Based on their weight change between pre-pregnancy and 3 months postpartum, and between 3 months and 12 months postpartum, participants were stratified into the following four groups: loss/loss (n=25); gain/loss (n=202); loss/gain (n=33); and gain/gain (n=45).
Those who gained weight between 3 and 12 months postpartum had higher BP, greater insulin resistance, lower adiponectin, higher LDL cholesterol and higher apolipoprotein B levels than their peers, according to researchers.
Total physical activity, particularly sports-related, was associated with a lesser likelihood of gaining weight, researchers found.
“These findings warrant further research, because doctors will want to know which interventions to suggest to women to help them maintain healthy weight patterns during this critical first year after delivery,” said researcher Simone Kew, BSc, of the Leadership Sinai Centre for Diabetes at Mount Sinai Hospital.
Disclosure: This study was supported by grants from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario and the Canadian Diabetes Association. The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.