Abstract

A growing body of evidence indicates that women with a history of common pregnancy complications and their offspring are at increased risk for cardiovascular disease later in life. I will explore the potential mechanisms underlying these associations and discuss whether it is likely that pregnancy complications are causally associated with both maternal and offspring cardiovascular health or not. I will also discuss implications for future research and policy.

Dr. Abigail Fraser is an epidemiologist based at the MRC Integrative Epidemiology Unit at the University of Bristol. Her research focuses on women’s reproductive health and cardiometabolic health across the life course, and the cross talk between the two. She is particularly interested in taking a life course approach to women’s reproductive health and in improving causal inference by applying a variety of analytical approaches such as use of negative controls, sibling comparisons, and Mendelian randomization in her research.