Changing paternity and the risk of preeclampsia/eclampsia in the subsequent pregnancy.
To determine whether changing paternity affects the risk of preeclampsia or eclampsia in the subsequent pregnancy and whether the effect depends on a woman's history of preeclampsia/eclampsia with her previous partner, a cohort study was conducted based on 140,147 women with two consecutive births during 1989-1991 identified through linking of annual California birth certificate data. Among women without preeclampsia/eclampsia in the first birth, changing partners resulted in a 30% increase in the risk of preeclampsia/eclampsia in the subsequent pregnancy compared with those who did not change partners (95% confidence interval: 1.1, 1.6). On the other hand, among women with preeclampsia/eclampsia in the first birth, changing partners resulted in a 30% reduction in the risk of preeclampsia/eclampsia in the subsequent pregnancy (95% confidence interval: 0.4, 1.2). The difference of the effect of changing paternity on the risk of preeclampsia/eclampsia between women with and those without a history of this condition was significant (p < 0.05 for the interaction term). The above estimates were adjusted for potential confounders. These findings suggest that the effect of changing paternity depends on the history of preeclampsia/eclampsia with the previous partner and support the hypothesis that parental human leukocyte antigen sharing may play a role in the etiology of preeclampsia/eclampsia.
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Division of Research, Kaiser Foundation Research Institute, Kaiser Permanente, Oakland, CA 94611, USA.
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D000328:Adult; D002140:California / Q000453:epidemiology; D015331:Cohort Studies; D004461:Eclampsia / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology / Q000276:immunology; D005260:Female; D006680:HLA Antigens / Q000276:immunology; D006801:Humans; D010298:Parity; D010334:Paternity; D011225:Pre-Eclampsia / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology / Q000276:immunology; D011247:Pregnancy; D012307:Risk Factors
D006680:HLA Antigens