Pregnancy-Onset Snoring Linked to High Blood Pressure

Higher risk of gestational hypertension and preeclampsia but not gestational diabetes

TUESDAY, Oct. 2 (HealthDay News) -- Pregnancy-onset snoring is associated with a significantly increased risk of gestational hypertension and preeclampsia, according to research published online Sept. 10 in the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology.

Louise M. O'Brien, Ph.D., of the Sleep Disorders Center at the University of Michigan School of Medicine in Ann Arbor, and colleagues conducted a prospective cohort study involving 1,719 pregnant women in their third trimester of pregnancy to determine whether pregnancy-onset habitual snoring, defined as snoring three to four nights per week, was associated with the risk of gestational hypertension, preeclampsia, and gestational diabetes.

Overall, 34 percent of participants reported snoring and 25 percent reported pregnancy-onset snoring. The researchers found that pregnancy-onset, but not chronic, snoring was associated with a significantly increased risk of gestational hypertension (odds ratio, 2.36) and preeclampsia (odds ratio, 1.59) but not gestational diabetes, after adjustment for confounders.

"This is the first large, prospective study to demonstrate that pregnancy-onset snoring confers significant risk to maternal cardiovascular health," the authors write. "These novel findings strongly implicate a role not only for snoring in general but, more specifically, for pregnancy-onset snoring in both gestational hypertension and preeclampsia."

Two authors disclosed financial ties to Philips Respironics, Fisher Paykel Healthcare, and GlaxoSmithKline.

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