Obstet Gynecol: Maternal obesity and risk of hypertension in early and late pregnancy

In a recent study published in the journal Obstetrics and Gynecology, researchers aimed to assess the relationship between maternity body mass index (BMI) during childbirth and the incidence of hypertension in the early and late stages of pregnancyresearchers used time-related birth and infant death certificates in the United States between 2014 and 2017 to conduct a population-based retrospective cohort study that included pregnant women who completed non-abnormal single births from 24 weeks to 41 weeks of pregnancyThe researchers excluded women with chronic hypertension and women with a BMI below 18.5The main exposure factors in the study were maternal BMI, which was classified as non-obese (BMI 18.5-29.9; reference population), level 1 obesity (BMI 30.0-34.9), level 2 obesity (BMI 35.0-39.9) and level 3 obesity (BMI above 40.0)The main outcome of the study was pregnancy hypertension (pregnancy hypertension, preeclampsia, or eclampsia) less than 34 weeks of pregnancy or greater than 34 weeksMultivariate Poisson regression is used to estimate the associated risk and adjust the promiscuous variablesResults are expressed as adjusted relative risk (aRR) and 95% CIof the 15.8 million live births during the study period, 14 million (88.6%) of pregnant women met the inclusion criteria, while 825,722 (5.9%) of pregnant women had high blood pressureLevel 1 obesity (aRR 1.13; 95% CI is 1.10-1.16), level 2 obese (aRR is 1.57; 95% CI is 1.53-1.62) and level 3 obesity (aRR is 2.18; 95% CI is 2.12-2.24) the risk of early pregnancy hypertension in pregnant women is significantly higherLevel 1 obesity (aRR 1.71; 95% CI 1.70-1.73) and level 2 (aRR 2.60 compared to non-obese pregnant women; 95% CI 2.58-2.62) and level 3 obesity (aRR 3.93; 95% CI 3.91-3.96) also significantly increased the risk of hypertension in pregnant women in the late stages of pregnancyit is shown that, compared with non-obese pregnant women, with the increase in obesity levels, obese pregnant women also gradually increase the risk of early pregnancy and late oncoming hypertension disease