Project description DEENESFRITPL Studying the long-term effects of pregnancy complications on maternal health Although preeclampsia, preterm birth and other pregnancy complications can affect maternal health, this connection has not yet been studied in depth. The EU-funded HealthierWomen project aims to study the various patterns of pregnancy complications that occur alone or in combination across pregnancies and analyse their association with cause-specific maternal mortality. The research will be conducted by linking significant data from women's reproductive histories as registered at the Medical Birth Registry of Norway to population-based death and cancer registries. In this way, HealthierWomen aspires to shed light on how pregnancy complications affect long-term maternal health and to contribute to the development of more effective chronic disease prevention strategies. Show the project objective Hide the project objective Objective Pregnancy complications such as preeclampsia and preterm birth are known to affect infant health, but their influence on mothers’ long-term health is not well understood. Most previous studies are seriously limited by their reliance on information from the first pregnancy. Often they lack the data to study women’s complete reproductive histories. Without a complete reproductive history, the relationship between pregnancy complications and women’s long-term health cannot be reliably studied. The Medical Birth Registry of Norway, covering all births from 1967-, includes information on more than 3 million births and 1.5 million sibships. Linking this to population based death and cancer registries provides a worldwide unique source of population-based data which can be analysed to identify heterogeneities in risk by lifetime parity and the cumulative experience of pregnancy complications. Having worked in this field of research for many years, I see many erroneous conclusions in studies based on insufficient data. For instance, both after preeclampsia and after a stillbirth, the high risk of heart disease observed in one-child mothers is strongly attenuated in women with subsequent pregnancies. I will study different patterns of pregnancy complications that occur alone or in combination across pregnancies, and analyse their associations with cause specific maternal mortality. Using this unique methodology, I will challenge the idea that placental dysfunction is the origin of preeclampsia and test the hypothesis that pregnancy complications may cause direct long-term effects on maternal health. The findings of this research have the potential to advance our understanding of how pregnancy complications affect the long-term maternal health and help to develop more effective chronic disease prevention strategies. Fields of science social sciencessociologydemographymortalityhumanitieshistory and archaeologyhistorymedical and health sciencesclinical medicineobstetricsfetal medicinemedical and health sciencesclinical medicineoncology Keywords preterm birth preeclampsia gestational diabetes perinatal death materal CVD mortality diabetes 2 foetal growth restriction large-for-gestational age (macrosomia) Programme(s) H2020-EU.1.1. - EXCELLENT SCIENCE - European Research Council (ERC) Main Programme Topic(s) ERC-2018-ADG - ERC Advanced Grant Call for proposal ERC-2018-ADG See other projects for this call Funding Scheme ERC-ADG - Advanced Grant Host institution UNIVERSITETET I BERGEN Net EU contribution € 2 500 000,00 Address MUSEPLASSEN 1 5020 Bergen Norway See on map Region Norge Vestlandet Vestland Activity type Higher or Secondary Education Establishments Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window Website Opens in new window Participation in EU R&I programmes Opens in new window HORIZON collaboration network Opens in new window Total cost € 2 500 000,00 Beneficiaries (1) Sort alphabetically Sort by Net EU contribution Expand all Collapse all UNIVERSITETET I BERGEN Norway Net EU contribution € 2 500 000,00 Address MUSEPLASSEN 1 5020 Bergen See on map Region Norge Vestlandet Vestland Activity type Higher or Secondary Education Establishments Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window Website Opens in new window Participation in EU R&I programmes Opens in new window HORIZON collaboration network Opens in new window Total cost € 2 500 000,00
