Teenage mothers at higher risk of heart disease later in life, says study

Teenage mothers are at higher risk of heart disease later in life than older mothers, a new study has found.

The study which was published in Journal of the American Heart Association examined 1,047 women between the ages of 65 and 74, who were from Canada, Albania, Colombia and Brazil.

After obtaining the information on the age of the women's first pregnancy, the researchers used the Framingham Risk Score (FRS) to check for correlations with cardiovascular disease risk.

The findings show women who give birth before the age of 20, scored significantly higher on the Framingham Risk Score, a measure used to estimate the 10-year cardiovascular risk.

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According to Dr Catherine Pirkle, the lead author of the study and assistant professor in the Office of Public Health Studies at the University of Hawaii, lifestyle factors that increase the risk of cardiovascular disease should be taken into consideration by adolescent mothers, including maintaining a healthy body weight and sufficient physical activity.