Aims  Hypertensive disorders of pregnancy (HDP) are a leading cause of maternal and foetal morbidity and mortality. We aimed to estimate the impact of HDP on the onset of chronic hypertension in primiparous women in the first years following childbirth. Methods and results  This nationwide cohort study used data from the French National Health Data System (SNDS). All eligible primiparous women without pre-existing chronic hypertension who delivered between 2010 and 2018 were included. Women were followed up from six weeks post-partum until onset of hypertension, a cardiovascular event, death, or the study end date (31 December 2018). The main outcome was a diagnosis of chronic hypertension. We used Cox models to estimate hazard ratios (HRs) of chronic hypertension for all types of HDP. Overall, 2 663 573 women were included with a mean follow-up time of 3.0 years. Among them, 180 063 (6.73%) had an HDP. Specifically 66 260 (2.16%) had pre-eclampsia (PE) and 113 803 (4.27%) had gestational hypertension (GH). Compared with women who had no HDP, the fully adjusted HRs of chronic hypertension were 6.03 [95% confidence interval (CI) 5.89–6.17] for GH, 8.10 (95% CI 7.88–8.33) for PE (all sorts), 12.95 (95% CI 12.29–13.65) for early PE, 9.90 (95% CI 9.53–10.28) for severe PE, and 13.17 (95% CI 12.74–13.60) for PE following GH. Hypertensive disorders of pregnancy exposure duration was an additional risk factor of chronic hypertension for all PE subgroups. Women with HDP consulted a general practitioner or cardiologist more frequently and earlier. Conclusion  Hypertensive disorders of pregnancy exposure greatly increased the risk of chronic hypertension in the first years following delivery.

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Background and objectives– Despite the potentially devastating effects of pregnancy-related stroke, few studies have examined its incidence by type of stroke. We aimed to study the nationwide incidence rates and recent temporal trends for all types of pregnancy-related stroke and to compare these incidence with stroke incidence in nonpregnant women.Methods– We conducted a study of 6 297 698 women aged 15 to 49 years who gave birth in France between 2010 and 2018 with no history of stroke before pregnancy by collecting data from the French National Health Insurance Information System database. Poisson regression were used to estimate incidence by types of stroke for the different pregnancy periods and the incidence rate ratio of stroke in pregnant versus nonpregnant French women.Results– Among the 6 297 698 women, 1261 (24.0 per 100,000 person-years) experienced a first ever stroke during , antepartum peripartum, or the first 6 weeks of postpartum. Of the pregnancy-related strokes, 42.9% were ischemic (IS), 41.9% were hemorrhagic (with similar proportion of intracerebral and subarachnoid hemorrhage) and 17.4% were cerebral venous thrombosis (CVT). Compared with nonpregnant women, incidence rates of stroke were similar during pregnancy for IS (aIRR=0.9(0.8-1.1), slightly higher for all hemorrhagic strokes (IRR=1.4(1.2-1.8), and considerably increased for CVT (IRR=8.1(6.5-10.1). Pregnancy-related stroke incidence rose between 2010 and 2018 for ischemic and hemorrhagic stroke but was stable for CVT.Discussion– The risk of pregnancy related CVT was more than eight-fold higher than that observed in nonpregnant women.The incidence of pregnancy-related ischemic and hemorrhagic stroke is increasing over time, and efforts should be made in terms of prevention considering treatable cardiovascular risk factors and hypertensive disorders in pregnant women.