Anthropometric measurements as a risk for hypertensive disorders in pregnancy: A hospital based study in South Asian population

Objective: To determine the relationship between pregnancy induced hypertensive diseases and obesity. Methods: A retrospective case controlled study was performed at Aga Khan University Hospital including records from July 2000 to June 2005. All women developing hypertension with or without proteinuria after 20 weeks of pregnancy (n=218) were included. Categories of pregnancy induced hypertensive diseases.(PIHD) were defined according to National high blood pressure working group and ACOG committee bulletin. Controls were selected randomly with a ratio of 1:1.7 between cases and controls. Results: The estimated prevalence of pre-eclampsia in our institution is 1.9%. Earlier reports suggested mostly non-Asian women primigravida were more likely to develop gestational hypertension when compared with multigravidae (p-value=0.004). Mean BMI of cases was significantly higher than controls (p=<0.001). The risks of both non-protienuric hypertension (Mean BMI= 27.16 +/- 5.46) and preeclampsia (Mean BMI= 27.39 +/- 6.15) increased consistently with increasing BMI. This rise was significantly associated with severity of pre-eclampsia and early development of PIH, but not associated with complications like eclampsia. No significant association of height and hypertension was found as most women of both cases and control were 150-165 cm tall. Conclusions: High BMI in pregnant women serves as a significant risk factor for developing hypertension in pregnancy but failed to establish this association with height is the main findings of our study.