Snoring and Blood Pressure in Third-Trimester Normotensive Pregnant Women

To examine the association between snoring, sleep quality, quantity, and blood pressure in third-trimester normotensive pregnant women.

This study was a cross-sectional analysis of two cohorts of healthy pregnant women recruited from a prenatal clinic in a medical center in Northern Taiwan.

A total of 322 women reported sociodemographic and health characteristics in a structured interview and wore a wrist actigraph on their nondominant wrist for 7 consecutive days to assess objective sleep patterns. The women's resting blood pressures were measured while seated in the clinic by trained personnel using an electronic sphygmomanometer.

One hundred thirty-three (41.3%) women reported snoring. Ninety-three women (28.9%) had <6 hr of nighttime sleep, with only 95 (29.5%) women averaging 7 or more hours of nighttime sleep. In the univariate analyses, snoring was positively associated with systolic and diastolic blood pressure as well as mean arterial pressure levels (p < .05). In the multivariate analyses, snoring remained as a significant predictor of higher diastolic blood pressure (β = 2.07, p < .05) and mean arterial pressure levels (β = 2.00, p < .05), after adjustment for age, parity, gestational age, body mass index before pregnancy, and sleep quantity and quality by actigraphy.

Snoring is a highly prevalent condition experienced by healthy third-trimester pregnant women and is associated with elevated blood pressure.

Clinical assessment and screening of snoring are of utmost importance in obstetric nursing practice to potentially prevent or reduce the associated adverse cardiovascular consequences in women during pregnancy.