Stanford (Calif.) University researchers found chronic hypertension in pregnant patients doubled in the last two decades, from 1.8% to 3.7%.
The study, published June 17 in Hypertension, used the Merative Marketscan Research Database to analyze commercial insurance claims between 2007 and 2021. It collected information on 1.9 million pregnancies in that time frame.
"We had hoped to see some impact from the 2017 guideline, which reduced the blood pressure threshold for treatment of hypertension," lead author Stephanie Leonard, PhD, an epidemiologist and assistant professor at the Stanford School of Medicine, said in a June 17 news release. "We were surprised to not find any meaningful changes from before and after the guideline."
The use of blood pressure-lowering medications in pregnant women remained stable at around 57% to 60% during the study period.
Only 60% of women with hypertension were treated with an antihypertensive drug. And there was a shift in which drugs were used more often. The study found a decrease in the use of methyldopa (from 29% to 2%) and hydrochlorothiazide (from 11% to 5%), but an increased use of labetalol (from 19% to 42%) and nifedipine (from 9% to 17%).