Risk for Hypertensive Disorders of Pregnancy Vary Markedly by Racial, Ethnic Subgroups

THURSDAY, Jan. 15, 2026 (HealthDay News) — There is variability in risk for hypertensive disorders of pregnancy (HDPs) observed across Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander subpopulations, according to a study published online Jan. 14 in the Journal of the American Heart Association.

Jennifer Soh, from Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, and colleagues investigated the risk for five HDP outcomes — chronic hypertension, chronic hypertension with superimposed preeclampsia, gestational hypertension, preeclampsia, and severe preeclampsia or eclampsia — among 15 disaggregated Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander subgroups. The analysis included 772,688 individuals identified from maternal hospital discharge records from births in California from 2007 to 2019.

The researchers found that the prevalence of HDPs ranged from 3.7 percent among Chinese individuals to 13.0 percent among Guamanian individuals. A higher risk for HDPs was seen for all Pacific Islander subgroups and Filipino individuals compared with Chinese individuals. Korean, Vietnamese, and Japanese individuals generally had the lowest risk. In adjusted models, the highest-risk groups had relative risks twofold to threefold higher than Chinese individuals.

“Our findings can help health care professionals identify those who are at higher risk,” Soh said in a statement. “Early identification and treatment can help prevent serious, downstream complications for both the pregnant individuals and their infants.”

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