Body Mass Index and its Correlation with Arterial Pressure in Pregnant Women

Abstract

Objective: High Body Mass Index (BMI) contributes towards the pregnancy related
complications and is also associated with many comorbidities. The main objective of present
study was to observe the correlation between body mass index and the arterial pressure levels
during different time intervals of pregnancy.
Methods: This study was carried out in Shaikh Zayed Hospital, Lahore. In this cross sectional
analytical study 121 pregnant women were included. Women with hypertension prior to
pregnancy, and those with diabetes, renal, hepatic, cardiac and any other systemic diseases
were excluded. The BMI of all the subjects was calculated and arterial pressures were recorded.
Results:Among all the women, 35 were found out to be hypertensive whereas 86 were normal.
The results showed that BMI was significantly higher in hypertensive group than those of normal
pregnant women. Pearson coefficient of correlation was calculated between age, height, weight,
BMI, systolic and diastolic blood pressure. Again BMI showed significant positive correlation with
systolic blood pressure and diastolic blood pressure in hypertensive women.
Conclusions: The results indicated that high BMI levels correlate closely with the development
of hypertension. Therefore it may be concluded from this study that high BMI may be one of the
risk factors of hypertension in pregnancy.