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Altitude and socio-biological determinants of pregnancy-associated hypertension
A A Mahfouz1, M M el-Said, W Alakija
1Department of Family and Community Medicine, Abha College of Medicine, King Saud University, Saudi Arabia.
Objectives:
To study the prevalence of gestation-associated hypertension and to determine the effect of altitude and related socio-biological factors.
Methods:
A stratified random sample of 3988 pregnant women living at high altitude and 2744 at sea level in the Asir region, Saudi Arabia was interviewed for socio-biological conditions and examined for blood pressure, proteinuria and body mass.
Results:
An overall prevalence of 2.4% was found. Certain groups of pregnant women are at high risk of developing hypertension. They include women who are over 40 years, high multipara, having short inter-pregnancy spacing, are overweight, are illiterate and those living at high altitude. Multivariate analysis showed that high altitude is a strong risk factor (adjusted odds ratio (OR), 1.879; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.123-2.819) and cannot be masked when other variables are controlled.
Conclusions:
Special health education and more frequent screening programs at primary health care level should be given to pregnant women living at high altitude.