Estimation of Anthropometric, Demographic, Diet and Past Medical History of Normotensive and Hypertensive Women during Pregnancy in Nigeria

Aim: This study sought to estimate the anthropometric, demographic, diet and past medical history of normotensive and hypertensive women during pregnancy in Nigeria.

Methodology: The study was a prospective cohort study. The participants were pregnant women attending the clinics for antenatal care in four different tertiary health facilities in Nigeria. Participants involved women at first visit (booking day) without hypertension in their first or second trimester of pregnancy and were followed up to delivery. Socio-demographic characteristics of the study population- age, place of residence, marital status, educational background, occupation, ethnic group, diet history, social history, family history, past medical history/medication and gynaecological/obstetrical history were obtained from each participant through a semi pretest questionnaire. Physical indices were determined and recorded.

Results: The results showed that body weight, body mass index, waist circumference and hip circumference were increasing from first to third trimesters of pregnancy. Most of the hypertensive women were between the ages of 29 and 46 years while the normotensive women were aged between 17 and 34 years with the normotensive getting married at a slightly younger age. Systolic and diastolic blood pressure decreased in second trimester and peaked in third trimester. It was observed that women who were married at late age range 35-42 years were 23 times likely to develop hypertensive disorders of pregnancy (HDP) when compared with those who married at lower age range of 13-25 years.

Conclusion: Increased age is associated with greater risk of development of HDP. It was also observed that being married is associated with lower risk of development of HDP and therefore longer survival than being single. Observations from this study revealed that previous history of hypertension contributed to HDP. Pregnant women who are not married were more predisposed to HDP than their married counterpart.