Racial differences in outcome of pregnancies complicated by hypertension

✍ Scribed by Lucky Jain; Cynthia Ferre; D. Vidyasagar

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1998
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 84 KB
• Volume: 7
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1057-0802
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1520-6661(199801/02)7:1<23::aid-mfm6>3.0.co;2-t

✦ Synopsis

Racial differences in the outcome of pregnancies complicated by hypertension (HTN) were examined using data obtained from a large perinatal data base with 109,428 consecutive deliveries from 1982 to 1987. Black women had a higher prevalence of hypertension than white women (prevalence ratio 2.3, 95% CI 2.2, 2.5). However, when compared to normotensive women of similar race, white hypertensive women showed a higher risk for adverse pregnancy outcome than black hypertensives as indicated by the higher odds ratio for prematurity (OR: 1.7 for white [W], 1.2 for black [B]), low birth weight (OR: 2.4 W; 1.5 B), intrauterine growth retardation (OR: 4.4 W; 1.6 B) and perinatal death (OR 2.3 W; 1.2 B). Hypertension was associated with a 156 g reduction in birthweight of newborns in whites as compared to a 63 g reduction in blacks. Further studies are needed to understand the racial differences in the impact of HTN on pregnancy outcome.