Childbearing, child-rearing, cardiovascular risk factors, and progression of carotid intima-media thickness: the Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns study.
Parity is associated with the risk of clinical cardiovascular events and the severity of preclinical atherosclerosis in older subjects. We sought to determine whether childbearing is associated with concurrent changes in cardiovascular risk factors and the progression of carotid intima-media thickness.
We examined the association between the number of children born during a 6-year period and concurrent changes in cardiovascular risk factors and progression of carotid intima-media thickness in men and women of reproductive age from the Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns study. Complete data for parity and carotid intima-media thickness were available for 1786 subjects (1005 females, 781 males).
For females, childbirth during the 6-year follow-up was associated with concurrent reductions in high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (P(trend)