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. 2010 Apr 29:340:c2050.
doi: 10.1136/bmj.c2050.

Recurrence of hyperemesis gravidarum across generations: population based cohort study

Ase Vikanes  1 , Rolv Skjaerven, Andrej M Grjibovski, Nina Gunnes, Siri Vangen, Per Magnus
Affiliations

Recurrence of hyperemesis gravidarum across generations: population based cohort study

Ase Vikanes et al. BMJ. .

Abstract

Objective: To estimate the risk of hyperemesis gravidarum (hyperemesis) according to whether the daughters and sons under study were born after pregnancies complicated by hyperemesis.

Design: Population based cohort study.

Setting: Registry data from Norway.

Participants: Linked generational data from the medical birth registry of Norway (1967-2006): 544 087 units of mother and childbearing daughter and 399 777 units of mother and child producing son.

Main outcome measure: Hyperemesis in daughters in mother and childbearing daughter units and hyperemesis in female partners of sons in mother and child producing son units.

Results: Daughters who were born after a pregnancy complicated by hyperemesis had a 3% risk of having hyperemesis in their own pregnancy, while women who were born after an unaffected pregnancy had a risk of 1.1% (unadjusted odds ratio 2.9, 95% confidence interval 2.4 to 3.6). Female partners of sons who were born after pregnancies complicated by hyperemesis had a risk of 1.2% (1.0, 0.7 to 1.6). Daughters born after a pregnancy not complicated by hyperemesis had an increased risk of the condition if the mother had hyperemesis in a previous or subsequent pregnancy (3.2 (1.6 to 6.4) if hyperemesis had occurred in one of the mother's previous pregnancies and 3.7 (1.5 to 9.1) if it had occurred in a later pregnancy). Adjustment for maternal age at childbirth, period of birth, and parity did not change the estimates. Restrictions to firstborns did not influence the results.

Conclusions: Hyperemesis gravidarum is more strongly influenced by the maternal genotype than the fetal genotype, though environmental influences along the maternal line cannot be excluded as contributing factors.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests: All authors have completed the Unified Competing Interest form at www.icmje.org/coi_disclosure.pdf (available on request from the corresponding author). I hereby declare that (1) ÅV has support from The Research Council of Norway for the submitted work; (2) RS, AMG, NG, SV and PM have no relationships that might have an interest in the submitted work in the previous 3 years; nor have their spouses, partners, or children financial relationships that may be relevant to the submitted work.

Comment in

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