Hypertensive Disorders of Pregnancy Up for Gen Z, Millennials

FRIDAY, Sept. 2, 2022 (HealthDay News) — More recent birth cohorts of pregnant individuals have experienced a doubling of rates of hypertensive disorders of pregnancy, according to a study published online Aug. 24 in JAMA Network Open.

Natalie A. Cameron, M.D., from Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, and colleagues examined associations of delivery year and birth year of pregnant individuals with incident rates of hypertensive disorders of pregnancy. The analysis included data from 38.1 million nulliparous individuals (aged 15 to 44 years) with a singleton, live birth identified from the National Vital Statistics System (1995 to 2019).

After adjusting for age and birth year, the researchers found that among pregnant individuals who delivered in 2015 to 2019, the adjusted rate ratio (aRR) for the incidence of hypertensive disorders of pregnancy was 1.59 versus those delivering from 1995 to 1999. The aRR for the incidence of hypertensive disorders of pregnancy was 2.61 among pregnant individuals born from 1996 to 2004 versus those born from 1951 to 1959, when adjusting for age and year of delivery. In each birth cohort, the incidence of hypertensive disorders was higher among self-identified non-Hispanic Black individuals, with similar relative changes for year of delivery (aRR, 1.76) and birth year (aRR, 3.26) versus non-Hispanic White individuals (aRRs, 1.60 and 2.53, respectively).

“This study suggests that public health efforts increasing awareness of and focusing on prevention among younger individuals are needed to reverse adverse trends in hypertensive disorders of pregnancy,” the authors write.

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