NATIONWIDE — Experiences of high blood pressure disorders during pregnancy are associated with an increased risk of vascular dementia and accelerated brain aging, according to studies reported at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference®(AAIC®) 2022 in San Diego and online.

Hypertensive disorders of pregnancy (HDP)—conditions of high blood pressure including chronic/gestational hypertension and preeclampsia—have been strongly linked to heart disease in later life, but until now, little research has connected these disorders with cognition, scientists said.

The key findings include:

• Women with a history of HDP were more likely to develop vascular dementia—a decline in thinking skills caused by conditions that block or reduce blood flow to the brain—later in life, compared to women with non-hypertensive pregnancies.
• High blood pressure during pregnancy was associated with  white matter pathology, a predictor of accelerated cognitive decline, 15 years after pregnancy.
• Women with a history of severe preeclampsia had significantly higher levels of beta amyloid, an Alzheimer’s-related brain change compared to women with non-hypertensive pregnancies.

Affecting nearly one in seven hospital deliveries, HDP is one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality in birthing persons and fetuses worldwide. These conditions impact Black, Latino, Asian/Pacific Islander and Native American populations at disproportionately high rates.

Karen Schliep, Ph.D., MSPH, assistant professor in family and preventive medicine at University of Utah Health, and colleagues, studied 59,668 women who had experienced a pregnancy.

Women with a history of HDP had a 1.37-times higher adjusted risk of all-cause dementia than women without HDP.  

HDP was associated with a 1.64 times higher risk of vascular dementia and 1.49 times higher risk of other related dementia, but not Alzheimer’s disease. Gestational hypertension and preeclampsia/eclampsia showed similar risk for vascular dementia.