A new study warns that spontaneous abortion was associated with an increased risk of premature mortality, particularly death from cardiovascular disease.
The study adds that spontaneous abortion (medically known as miscarriage) is linked to risk of dying younger, and could be an early warning sign of potential health issues.
The authors found that the association between miscarriage and premature death was particularly strong for women who had a miscarriage before age 24 or who had three or more miscarriages.
They state that women who miscarried were 19 percent more likely to die prematurely than women who did not miscarry, with the strongest associations for women with recurrent miscarriages and for miscarriages occurring early in a woman’s reproductive life.
This is even as Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Adetokunbo Fabamwo, who is also the Chief Medical Director at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital,said that, taking certain health indices into consideration, one could say that miscarriage reflects a woman’s overall health.
Also, Senior Obstetrician and Gynaecologist at the Federal Medical Centre, Ebute-Metta, Dr. James Taiwo Odofin, said that when talking about health, “you are talking about the complete wellbeing — physical, psychological, mental, and social.
“So, there is no how miscarriage will not affect a woman psychologically and it can affect the health of the woman.”
The study, published in the peer-reviewed journal BMJ edition of March 24, states that the overall goal is to investigate the association of spontaneous abortion [medical term for a miscarriage] with the risk of all cause and cause-specific premature mortality (death before the age of 70).
The study is titled, ‘Association of spontaneous abortion with all cause and cause specific premature mortality: prospective cohort study.’
SDG 3 and health
Reducing a third of premature deaths from non-communicable diseases by 2030 is a United Nation’s sustainable development goal [SDG 3: Good Health and Well-being]. The study authors are of the opinion that identifying risk factors for death from non-communicable disease to highlight priorities for intervention is needed urgently.
Although traditional risk factors that affect both men and women (eg, tobacco use, overweight and obesity, and physical inactivity) explain most of the deaths from non-communicable diseases globally, increasing evidence suggests that reproductive factors unique to women are associated with a greater risk of death from non-communicable diseases, the study notes.
Even if reproductive events do not increase the risk of death from non-communicable diseases, they could be useful as an early stress test of underlying risk factors that cause adverse reproductive outcomes and death from non-communicable diseases, they added.
Miscarriage: Taboo subject —WHO
According to the World Health Organisation, losing a baby in pregnancy through miscarriage or stillbirth is still a taboo subject worldwide, linked to stigma and shame.
The global agency notes that many women still do not receive appropriate and respectful care when their baby dies during pregnancy or childbirth.
The WHO notes that miscarriage is the most common reason for losing a baby during pregnancy.
“Estimates vary, although March of Dimes, an organisation that works on maternal and child health, indicates a miscarriage rate of 10-15 percent in women who knew they were pregnant,” WHO says.
While noting that pregnancy loss is defined differently around the world, WHO states that, in general a baby who dies before 28 weeks of pregnancy is referred to as a miscarriage, and babies who die at or after 28 weeks are stillbirths.
The study authors are spread variously across the Harvard T H Chan School of Public Health; Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University; College of Human Medicine, Michigan State University; Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School; and the School of Public Health, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, PR China.
According to lead author, Jorge E Chavarro, an associate professor at the Department of Epidemiology, Harvard T H Chan School of Public Health, substantial evidence indicates that women with a history of spontaneous abortion [miscarriage] have a greater risk of non-communicable diseases, including hypertension, cardiovascular diseases, and type 2 diabetes.
Says Chavarro, “There is increasing evidence that different reproductive events throughout a woman’s life, including miscarriages, are associated with later risk of heart disease and premature mortality;” adding, “Events such as a miscarriage could serve as an early warning sign to women and their doctors that they may have an elevated susceptibility to these conditions.”
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