Prevalence of hypertension in pregnancy and contributing factors in Segamat Hospital, Johore, 1995

Abstract

A cross-sectional study was conducted at Hospital Segamat, Johor to study the prevelence of hypertension in pregnancy and the contributing factors. A total of 290 mothers were obtained using stratified random sampling method according to ethnic where the list of the mother's name who delivered at that hospital from October 1994 till November 1994 were used as the sampling frame. Informations were extracted from antenatal cards and books. The study revealed that the prevalence of hypertension in pregnancy was 14.1% (41 mothers).The antenatal visits, past history of hypertensive in pregnancy and obesity factor had statistically significant link with hypertension in pregnancy (P<0.05). The most common complication to the fetous was low birth weight (9.8%) but not significant statistically while Eclampsia (4.%) was the most significant complication to the mother. Even though hypertensive in pregnancy cannot be prevented totally, therefore antenatal care is essential in order to reduced the complications to the mother and fetous by emphasizing on health education to mother especially on reducing weight before getting pregnant.