Women with high blood pressure during pregnancy may face double the risk for kidney disease several years after giving birth, a study recently published in the journal Hypertension found.
Researchers analyzed hospital records of 391,838 women who gave birth in South Carolina between 2004 and 2016 for the study, published Feb. 25. Relevant birth and death certificate data also was collected, with researchers following up at three, five and 14 years after delivery.
Key findings:
- The risk of kidney disease after three years was more than twice as high in women who developed pregnancy-related hypertension compared to women without blood pressure problems.
- Women who had high blood pressure prior to pregnancy were 3.8 times as likely to develop kidney disease within three years of giving birth than those with no blood pressure issues.
- Black women with both high blood pressure prior to pregnancy and pregnancy-related hypertension disorders had triple the risk for developing kidney disease within 14 years of delivery compared to Black women with no blood pressure issues, while white women had 1.97 times greater risk.