Maternal Age, Paternal Age and New-Onset Hypertension in Late Pregnancy

OBJECTIVE: To examine the association between maternal age, paternal age, and new-onset hypertension in late pregnancy. METHODS: We carried out a retrospective cohort study of 9,302,675 pregnant women with live births in the United States between 1995 and 1998. Maternal and paternal ages were analyzed together using "couple age" in multivariate logistic regression models to reduce colinearity between maternal age and paternal age. The effect of paternal age was also analyzed with stratification of maternal age. RESULTS: Compared with couples with both a maternal and paternal age of 20 to 34 years, an older maternal age (above 35 years) was associated with an increased risk for new-onset hypertension, except for couples with a very young father (below 20 years). Younger maternal age (below 20 years) was associated with a decreased risk for new-onset hypertension, except for couples with a very old father (above 45 years). There was no significant association between paternal age and new-onset hypertension with stratification of maternal age. CONCLUSION: Increased risk for new-onset hypertension in late pregnancy is significantly associated with advancing maternal age, whereas there is no association between paternal age and new-onset hypertension in late pregnancy.