Abstract

Eight percent of pregnancies involve hypertensive disorders, which can have serious complications for mothers and children. There has only been minimal research into hypertension in pregnancy in developing countries, including Jordan. Therefore, this study aimed to identify how frequent certain risk factors that apply to hyper­tensive disorders during pregnancy were among women in the Jordanian capital of Amman. A prospective case-control study was conducted on 184 Jordanian pregnant patients with hypertensive disorders and 172 age-matched control subjects recruited from the maternity ward of a tertiary public hospital in Ammn city; they were followed-up until 85 days after the birth (late puerperium). A standardized questionnaire pilot-tested was completed by participants that included demographic data and known risk factors for hypertension in pregnancy. Statistical analysis SPSS was conducted to compare the frequency of risk factors using Fisher’s exact test, chi-square, Student’s t-tests, as well as multivariate logistic regression was conducted to identify independent risk factors. The results showed that chronic hypertension, prenatal hypertension, family history of preeclampsia, diabetes, high BMI, nulliparity, previous preeclampsia history and low education level were identified as risk factors for hypertensive disorders in pregnancy in this population; Moreover, diabetes, chronic hypertension and family history of preeclampsia were found to be independent risk factors. The results of the study contribute to the currently limited knowledge about the modifiable risk factors for hypertensive disorders during pregnancy among the Jordanian population, and could therefore be extremely useful for clinicians providing prenatal care.

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