Maternal Socioeconomic Status and Nulliparity: A Double Fold Risk Factor for Preeclampsia among Antenatal Mothers

Preeclampsia is a condition in which hypertension and proteinuria is present with or without edema in a woman after 20 weeks of gestation, who has been previously normotensive. In spite of known risk factors & screening tests being proposed over years, there is only a small part of association explained on the effects of established risk factors for preeclampsia in most of the studies, recommends for further research on risk factors. To determine Maternal SocioEconomic status & Nulliparity together as risk factor for Preeclampsia among mothers. Total 109 Healthy antenatal mothers in 2 groups, 53 mothers in Group A (Nulliparous Mothers in low socioeconomic status, 56 mothers in Group B (Nulliparous Mothers in Upper Middle Socio-Economic Status) with absence of Clinical Features of Preeclampsia were recruited at 15 16 weeks of Gestation and were followed till 36 weeks of Gestation for the features of Preeclampsia. There was no Significant Difference between both the groups with all the baseline characteristics. At the end of 36 weeks, the overall prevalence of Preeclampsia in Group A was Higher about 73.58 %(39out of 53 mothers), compared to 48.2% (27 out of 56 Mothers) in groupB at t(107) = 2.598, P = 0.011,MD =2.161 ( 95% CI,0.512 3.810) respectively. Screening for risk factors has been relative lack of consideration among health care professionals towards prevention of preeclampsia among the high-risk population .Maternal socioeconomic status and Nulliparity together is considered as a significant double fold risk factor for preeclampsia & hence they should be targeted for intensive Preeclampsia surveillance. Hence the investigator recommends strengthening antenatal care, to establish a strong supportive framework for the guide to health care providers for better understanding of the impact and epidemiology of Preeclampsia in India.