Health of children born to mothers who had preeclampsia: a population-based cohort study

OBJECTIVE: We assessed whether preeclampsia correlates with the long-term postnatal health of the offspring STUDY DESIGN: We conducted a populalion-based cohort study of 1,618,481 singletons born in Denmark (1978-2004) with up to 27 years of follow-up. We used Cox regression to estimate the associations between preeclampsia and long-term health outcomes of the offspring RESULTS: Children born at term exposed to preeclampsia had an increased risk of a variety of diseases, such as endocrine, nutritional, and metabolic diseases (incidence rate ratio, 16, 95% confidence interval, 15-1.7), and diseases of the blood and blood-forming organs (incidence rate ratio, 1 5; 95% confidence interval, 13-18) Children born preterm exposed to preeclampsia had a similar pattern of hospitalizations compared with the children born preterm unexposed to preeclampsia, although they had a decreased risk of cerebral palsy (incidence rate ratio, 0 7, 95% confidence interval, 06-09) CONCLUSION: Preeclampsia was associated with an increased risk of being hospitalized for a number of diseases, especially in the children born at term.