According to a new study, women can accurately recall key pregnancy-related information at least 4 years later that could have important implications for their future risk of developing cardiovascular disease (CVD). A simple and brief questionnaire developed and validated by researchers from Washington University School of Medicine (St. Louis, MO), Harvard School of Public Health, and Brigham and Women’s Hospital (Boston, MA) is a valuable new screening tool described in an article in Journal of Women’s Health, a peer-reviewed publication from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article and an accompanying editorial are available free on the Journal of Women’s Health website until August 7, 2015.

Ebony Boyce Carter, MD, MPH and coauthors assessed the accuracy of the responses to their questionnaire - provided by women who were, on average, more than 4 years postpartum - by comparing the answers to information in the women’s medical histories. The pregnancy recall tool includes questions about infant birthweight and length of the pregnancy, and pregnancy-related complications such as gestational diabetes, pre-eclampsia, and pregnancy-associated hypertension. The authors report which pregnancy events and information were more commonly recalled in the article “Pregnancy Complications as Markers for Subsequent Maternal Cardiovascular Disease: Validation of Maternal Recall Questionnaire.”

In the Editorial “Pregnancy as a Window to Cardiovascular Disease Risk: How Will We Know?” Janet M. Catov, PhD, Magee-Womens Hospital (Pittsburgh, PA) says, “The reproductive years are an ideal time to assess pre-clinical CVD risk and launch strategies to prevent or delay onset of disease in women.”

“This brief tool to gather information on pregnancy-related risk factors for future cardiovascular disease can help clinicians identify women at increased risk,” says Susan G. Kornstein, MD, Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Women’s Health, Executive Director of the Virginia Commonwealth University Institute for Women’s Health (Richmond, VA), and President of the Academy of Women’s Health.

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About the Journal

Journal of Women’s Health, published monthly, is a core multidisciplinary journal dedicated to the diseases and conditions that hold greater risk for or are more prevalent among women, as well as diseases that present differently in women. The Journal covers the latest advances and clinical applications of new diagnostic procedures and therapeutic protocols for the prevention and management of women’s healthcare issues. Complete tables of content and a sample issue may be viewed on the Journal of Women’s Health website. Journal of Women’s Health is the official journal of the Academy of Women’s Health and the Society for Women’s Health Research.

About the Academy

Academy of Women’s Health is an interdisciplinary, international association of physicians, nurses, and other health professionals who work across the broad field of women’s health, providing its members with up-to-date advances and options in clinical care that will enable the best outcomes for their women patients. The Academy’s focus includes the dissemination of translational research and evidence-based practices for disease prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of women across the lifespan.

About the Publisher

Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers is a privately held, fully integrated media company known for establishing authoritative peer-reviewed journals in many promising areas of science and biomedical research, including Violence and Gender, LGBT Health, Population Health Management, and Breastfeeding Medicine. Its biotechnology trade magazine, Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News (GEN), was the first in its field and is today the industry’s most widely read publication worldwide. A complete list of the firm’s 80 journals, books, and newsmagazines is available on the Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers website.

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Kathryn Ryan
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