How lifetime stress and trauma affect heart and metabolic health during and after pregnancy
Accumulation of stress and trauma across the life course and cardiometabolic risk during pregnancy and postpartum
This work looks at whether stress and traumatic experiences over a lifetime raise the chances of high blood pressure, gestational diabetes, and other heart/metabolic problems during pregnancy and after, especially for Black and low-income women.
Quick facts
| Grant type | NIH-funded research |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | Emory University NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (Atlanta, United States) |
| Project ID | NIH-11292875 on NIH RePORTER |
What this research studies
You would be asked about your lifetime experiences of stress and trauma and about your pregnancy and postpartum health. The team will combine data from two long-term studies (the Grady Trauma Project and CARDIA) and recruit pregnant and postpartum people through the EmPOWR registry in Atlanta. They will use questionnaires, medical records, blood tests, blood pressure, and BMI measurements to link past experiences with current cardiometabolic markers. The researchers will model direct and indirect pathways to see how life-course stress may lead to hypertensive disorders of pregnancy or gestational diabetes and explain racial and income-related differences in outcomes.
Who could benefit from this research
Good fit: Ideal candidates are pregnant or postpartum adults (age 21+) who can share their lifetime stress/trauma history and allow measurements like blood pressure, weight/BMI, and blood tests, with emphasis on enrolling Black and low-income women.
Not a fit: People who are not pregnant or postpartum, younger than 21, or unwilling to provide history/biologic data are unlikely to benefit directly from joining this project.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: If successful, this work could point to how past stress raises pregnancy-related heart and metabolic risks and help guide prevention or support strategies for higher-risk people.
How similar studies have performed: Earlier research suggests links between trauma and cardiometabolic risk but evidence during pregnancy and postpartum is limited, so this builds on prior findings but addresses understudied time periods and populations.
Where this research is happening
Atlanta, United States
- Emory University — Atlanta, United States (Active)
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Stanhope, Kaitlyn K — Emory University
- Study coordinator: Stanhope, Kaitlyn K
About this research
- This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
- Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
- For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page below.