Is preeclampsia a significant risk factor for long-term hospitalizations and morbidity?

Abstract

Objective: The present study was aimed to evaluate long-term morbidity of patients with hypertensive disorders of pregnancy. Study design: A retrospective cohort study was conducted, including women who gave birth between the years of 1988 to 1998, and had a follow-up until December 2009. Data were extracted by linking a computerized database of hospitalizations with computerized database containing maternal records from the same regional medical center. The exposed group comprised 2072 patients with mild or severe preeclampsia in one or more of their pregnancies and the comparison group included 20742 patients without preeclampsia. Excluded from the study were patients with chronic hypertension and pre-gestational diabetes before the index pregnancy. Data included subsequent hospitalizations in internal medicine, oncology, nephrology, neurology, cardiac intensive care unit, and hematology, as well as a diagnosis of chronic hypertension during the follow-up period. Results: Patients with preeclampsia had significantly higher rates of chronic hypertension diagnosed after the index pregnancy as compared with patients without preeclampsia (12.5% vs. 0.9%; OR = 15.8, 95% CI 12.9–19.3; p < 0.001). Likewise, patients with preeclampsia were more likely to be hospitalized at least once (13.7% vs. 11.4%; OR = 1.2, 95% CI 1.1–1.4; p = 0.002) as compared with patients without preeclampsia. Exposed women had 582 hospitalizations (0.28 hospitalization/patient), while the non-exposed patients had a total of 4687 hospitalizations (0.23 hospitalization/patient; p < 0.001). Conclusion: Preeclampsia is a significant risk factor for long-term morbidity such as chronic hypertension and hospitalizations later in life.

Keywords::

• Cardiovascular diseases
• hypertension
• long-term hospitalization
• preeclampsia

Declaration of Interest: The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of this article. The material contained in the manuscript has not been published and is not being submitted elsewhere. None of the authors have any conflict of interest.