Abstract Body (Do not enter title and authors here): Background: Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is independently implicated in pathways leading to a higher risk of all forms of incident cardiovascular diseases (CVD). Indeed, GDM confers a 30-56% higher relative risk of CVD, independent of incident postpartum T2D. A notable potent and inverse relationship exists between ideal cardiovascular health (CVH) scores and CVD risk. However, associations between CVH scores and GDM are unclear. Additionally, racial/ethnic and citizenship/nativity differences in these associations are not well elucidated.
Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional analysis of women aged≥20 years from the 2007- 2018 National Health Examination and Nutrition Survey, who had data on Life’s Simple 7 (LS7) component metrics and self-reported GDM history. Each LS7 metric was assigned a score of 0(non-ideal) and 1(ideal) and summed to obtain total ideal CVH scores (0-7) for each participant. We used multivariable-adjusted logistic regression models to assess the associations between LS7 ideal CVH scores (0-7) and GDM history, accounting for social and demographic factors.
Results: Among the 9,199 women study participants (mean age: 46 years, 8% with a GDM history), there was a progressive decrease in the odds of past GDM history across increasing ideal CVH scores. Compared to females with 0-1 ideal CVH scores, females with ideal CVH scores of 3, 4 and 5-7 had an associated 39% lower [odds ratio: 0.61 (95% CI: 0.41-0.90)], 50% lower [0.50 (0.33-0.76)] and 66% lower [0.34 (0.20-0.56)] odds of past GDM history respectively (Table 1). There were notable racial/ethnic and citizenship/nativity disparities in these associations. (Table 2).
Conclusions: Higher ideal CVH scores are associated with comparatively lower odds of past GDM, with notable disparities by race/ethnicity and citizenship/nativity status. Targeted and focused strategies to expeditiously improve ideal CVH component metrics and scores may have marked CVD implications for females with GDM history.