Prevalence of preeclampsia and the associated risk factors among pregnant women in Bangladesh

Preeclampsia is a multi-organ system disorder of pregnancy and is responsible for a significant rate of maternal morbidity and mortality worldwide. In Bangladesh, a large number of obstetric deaths occur every year but the exact reasons are not well investigated. The data regarding preeclampsia and its associated risk factors are scarce or limited in pregnant women in Bangladesh. Therefore, we aimed to conduct a cross-sectional study to estimate the prevalence of preeclampsia and identify the possible risk factors in a pregnant women cohort in Bangladesh. In this cross-sectional study, a total of 111 participants were enrolled and asked to include their anthropometric, socio-demographic, and other related lifestyle information in a standard questionnaire form. Blood samples were also collected from each participant to analyze serum levels of lipid profile, liver enzymes, uric acid, and creatinine by using standard methods. Logistic regression analysis was performed to identify the factors associated with preeclampsia. The overall prevalence of preeclampsia was 14.4%. About 10% of the pregnancies were found to have preeclampsia after 20 weeks of gestation without a previous history of hypertension. On the other hand, the prevalence of preeclampsia that superimposed on chronic hypertension was found to be 5.4%. Serum levels of TC, LDL-C, ALT and uric acid were significantly higher and HDL-C was significantly lower in preeclamptic pregnancies than the non-preeclamptic pregnancies. Respondents who required to take antihypertensive medications (AOR 5.45, 95% CI [1.09, 27.31]) and who never took antenatal care (AOR 6.83, 95% CI [1.00, 46.48]) were more likely to be preeclamptic. In conclusion, the present study showed a comparatively high prevalence of preeclampsia among pregnant women in Bangladesh. Some programmatic interventions such as medication for hypertension, antenatal visits to doctors, delivery and postnatal care services should be considered to reduce and prevent the hypertensive pregnancy disorders in Bangladesh.