• Stefanie N Hinkle, Sunni L Mumford, Katherine L Grantz, Pauline Mendola, James L Mills, Edwina H Yeung, Anna Z Pollack, Sonia M Grandi, Rajeshwari Sundaram, Yan Qiao, Enrique F Schisterman, and Cuilin Zhang.
• Department of Biostatistics, Epidemiology and Informatics, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA; Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA. Electronic address: stefanie.hinkle@pennmedicine.upenn.edu.
• Lancet. 2023 Nov 18; 402 (10415): 185718651857-1865.

BackgroundHigh weight gain in pregnancy is associated with greater postpartum weight retention, yet long-term implications remain unknown. We aimed to assess whether gestational weight change was associated with mortality more than 50 years later.MethodsThe Collaborative Perinatal Project (CPP) was a prospective US pregnancy cohort (1959-65). The CPP Mortality Linkage Study linked CPP participants to the National Death Index and Social Security Death Master File for vital status to 2016. Adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) with 95% CIs estimated associations between gestational weight gain and loss according to the 2009 National Academy of Medicine recommendations and mortality by pre-pregnancy BMI. The primary endpoint was all-cause mortality. Secondary endpoints included cardiovascular and diabetes underlying causes of mortality.FindingsAmong 46 042 participants, 20 839 (45·3%) self-identified as Black and 21 287 (46·2%) as White. Median follow-up time was 52 years (IQR 45-54) and 17 901 (38·9%) participants died. For those who were underweight before pregnancy (BMI <18·5 kg/m2; 3809 [9·4%] of 40 689 before imputation for missing data]), weight change above recommendations was associated with increased cardiovascular mortality (HR 1·84 [95% CI 1·08-3·12]) but not all-cause mortality (1·14 [0·86-1·51]) or diabetes-related mortality (0·90 [0·13-6·35]). For those with a normal pre-pregnancy weight (BMI 18·5-24·9 kg/m2; 27 921 [68·6%]), weight change above recommendations was associated with increased all-cause (HR 1·09 [1·01-1·18]) and cardiovascular (1·20 [1·04-1·37]) mortality, but not diabetes-related mortality (0·95 [0·61-1·47]). For those who were overweight pre-pregnancy (BMI 25·0-29·9 kg/m2; 6251 [15·4%]), weight change above recommendations was associated with elevated all-cause (1·12 [1·01-1·24]) and diabetes-related (1·77 [1·23-2·54]) mortality, but not cardiovascular (1·12 [0·94-1·33]) mortality. For those with pre-pregnancy obesity (≥30·0 kg/m2; 2708 [6·7%]), all associations between gestational weight change and mortality had wide CIs and no meaningful relationships could be drawn. Weight change below recommended levels was associated only with a reduced diabetes-related mortality (0·62 [0·48-0·79]) in people with normal pre-pregnancy weight.InterpretationThis study's novel findings support the importance of achieving healthy gestational weight gain within recommendations, adding that the implications might extend beyond the pregnancy window to long-term health, including cardiovascular and diabetes-related mortality.FundingNational Institutes of Health.Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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