Abstract
Background Hypertension is one of the major causes of related maternal deaths worldwide and
it is one of the most common medical disorders encountered during pregnancy.
Aim This study aimed at assessing the demographic and medical characteristics of hypertensive
pregnant women in two secondary healthcare facilities, in Ilorin, Nigeria
Method This was a cross-sectional study among 104 pregnant women with hypertension attending
the outpatient department of General Hospital and Civil Service Clinic, Ilorin between
March and May 2021. A validated self-administered questionnaire was used to obtain
information on sociodemographics. Data on the medical characteristics of the respondents
and their medications were extracted from the respondent's medical files. Ethical
approval was obtained from the Ministry of Health and General Hospital, Ilorin. For
statistical analysis for categorical measurements, the frequencies and percentages
were computed.
Results Seventy-five percent of the correspondents were below 36 years old, 97% were married,
79% had tertiary education, and 74% were above 24 weeks of gestation. About 68% of
the correspondents had blood pressure more than or equal to 140/90 and 10% had blood
pressure more than 160 mm Hg systolic or more than 100 mm Hg diastolic. About 78.8%
of the correspondents had a family history of hypertension, 13.5% had a family history
of diabetes mellitus, and 22.1% had a family history of obesity. About 27.9% had pre-existing
hypertension, 61.5% developed hypertension before the end of 20 weeks of gestation,
and 10.6% developed hypertension after 20 weeks of gestation. About 24% had their
antihypertensive medication changed during pregnancy, 38.5% were treated with methyldopa,
31.7% with nifedipine, and 27% with nifedipine and methyldopa. Majority (83.6%) of
the respondents were not adherent to their medications.
Conclusion Two-third of the patients had poor blood pressure control irrespective of the fact
that all were under drug therapy. Family history and large body mass index are the
main risk factors for the development of hypertension during pregnancy. Noncompliance
may play a significant role in no drug response.
Keywords gestational hypertension - pregnancy - chronic hypertension - pre-eclampsia - medication
adherence
