Women with a history of pre-eclampsia are nearly twice as likely to develop vascular dementia than those who had normotensive pregnancies, data from over two million women suggest.

This risk also increases with advancing age, though the association between pre-eclampsia and Alzheimer’s or other forms of dementia was “less conclusive”, say authors from University College Cork in Ireland.

Writing in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, they said the findings underscore the importance of considering obstetric history when evaluating long-term cardiometabolic disease risk.

“Moreover, it may be relevant to counsel these women on their potential future risks of cognitive issues, in the context of their concurrent increased risk of cardiometabolic and renal disease.”