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ABSTRACT
Aim: Preeclampsia and obesity are two closely related syndromes. The high maternal prepregnancy body mass index (BMI) is a risk factor for present preeclampsia, independently of the ethnic background of the studied population. The aim of this study was to analyse in a prospective cohort study the relation between prepregnancy BMI and development of preeclampsia in Maya-Mestizo women.
Design: This is a prospective cohort study of 642 pregnant women that were included in the first trimester of the pregnancy (gestational age ≤12 weeks at the first antenatal visit) and all of them were of Maya-Mestizo ethnic origin from the state of Yucatán, México. We assessed the potential risk factors for preeclampsia and documented the prepregnancy BMI (kg/m2) that was based on measured height and maternal self-report of prepregnancy weight at the initial visit. Besides, in the antenatal visit we documented if the pregnant women developed preeclampsia.
Results: Of the 642 pregnant Maya-Mestizo women, 49 developed preeclampsia, with an incidence of 7.6% (44.9% had severe and 55% mild). The prepregnancy BMI was higher in women with developed preeclampsia than in those with normal pregnancies. Women with overweight or obesity in comparison with normal weight presented a RR = 2.82 (95% CI: 1.32–6.03; P = 0.008) and RR= 4.22 (95% CI: 2.07–8.61; P = 0.001), respectively.
Conclusions: Our findings expand the previous studies to show that the higher prepregnancy BMI is a strong, independent risk factor for preeclampsia.
Acknowledgements
We thank the authorities of the Hospital Materno Infantil, S.S., Mérida, Yucatán, México, for their support.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.