Teen mums have higher risk of heart disease later in life, says study

A new study now finds that teenage mums have a greater risk of heart disease later in life due to the stress childbirth places on the body.

The study shows that women who became mums in their teens were at greater risks for heart disease and blood vessel disease.

The study found that women who had a baby before the age of 20, scored significantly higher on the Framingham Risk Score - a measure used to estimate the 10-year cardiovascular risk.

Using the Framingham Risk Score, the researchers connected age of first birth to risk for cardiovascular disease.

Lead author of the study Dr Catherine Pirkle, an assistant professor in the Officeof Public Health Studies at the University of Hawaii said that adolescent mothers may need to be more careful about lifestyle factors that increase the risk of cardiovascular disease, including maintaining a healthy body weight and sufficient physical activity.

She added that more intensive screening of cardiovascular-disease risk may be required of women reporting early childbirths.

According to the researcher, this is due to the added strain put on a woman’s heart and overall body during childbirth. That type of stress is especially harmful to young women's body.

Dr Pirkle said that women who had never given birth may have miscarried or terminated pregnancies would have had dramatically lower levels of pregnancy-related complications.