Anaemia, or iron deficiency, has been studied to be common among people with congenital heart disease, in which one has heart defects at birth affecting the organ’s function. A recent study conducted on women in the UK revealed that being anaemic during pregnancy can increase the risk of the child having a heart condition at birth by 47 per cent. The study was published in the British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. The researchers analysed health records of women who became pregnant between January 1998 and October 2020. Over 2,700 women participants had a child diagnosed with a heart problem at birth, while 13,880 women did not. Haemoglobin levels are measured in the first 100 days of pregnancy. More than 120 children with congenital heart disease and 390 children with normal heart function were found to have had anaemia.
‘This is the first study in a UK population that demonstrates an association between maternal anaemia in early pregnancy and CHD (congenital heart disease) in offspring, demonstrating a 47 per cent higher odds of CHD in the child,’ said researchers.
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In a 2021 study published in Nature Communications journal, the researchers had identified anaemia in pregnant mice as a risk factor for causing heart defects in offspring mice, which was “previously unknown”.
In this study, the team looked at the link between anaemia in early pregnancy and the risk of the child being born with a heart condition.