Fewer than 14% of high-risk women attended a postpartum blood pressure screening

In a new study, only 13.7% of women diagnosed with hypertensive disorders of pregnancy (HDP) attended a blood pressure screening visit within 10 days of delivery. HDP can cause life-threatening complications, as described in the study published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Women’s Health. Click here to read the article now.

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recommends that women with HDP undergo blood pressure screening 7-10 days after delivery to detect postpartum hypertension, or earlier if symptoms develop.

Sheree Boulet, DrPH, MPH, from Emory University School of Medicine, and coauthors conducted a population-based study of pregnant women who delivered at a large public hospital in Atlanta, GA and identified demographic and clinical predictors of postpartum blood pressure (BP) screening attendance among women with HDP. They found that women with preeclampsia with severe features were more likely to attend a BP visit than women with gestational hypertension. Furthermore, rates of BP screening attendance were lower for women with inadequate and intermediate prenatal care utilization compared to women with adequate prenatal care utilization.

“These findings suggest that we have a long way to go in improving BP screening attendance,” state the authors. “Addressing the gap in postpartum BP screening will require creative solutions to address barriers at the individual-, provider-, and systems-levels.”

“Despite the ACOG recommendation that women with HDP undergo BP screening within 7-10 days of delivery, the women have to show up for this visit. This study demonstrates the missed opportunity to screen these high-risk women and avoid the potentially serious complications of postpartum hypertension,” says Journal of Women’s Health Editor-in-Chief Susan G. Kornstein, MD, Executive Director of the Virginia Commonwealth University Institute for Women’s Health, Richmond, VA.

About the Journal

Journal of Women’s Health, published monthly, is a core multidisciplinary journal dedicated to the diseases and conditions that hold greater risk for or are more prevalent among women, as well as diseases that present differently in women. Led by Editor-in-Chief Susan G. Kornstein, MD, Executive Director of the Virginia Commonwealth University Institute for Women’s Health, Richmond, VA, the Journal covers the latest advances and clinical applications of new diagnostic procedures and therapeutic protocols for the prevention and management of women’s healthcare issues. Complete tables of content and a sample issue may be viewed on the Journal of Women’s Health website. Journal of Women’s Health is the official journal of the Society for Women’s Health Research.

About the Publisher

Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers is known for establishing authoritative peer-reviewed journals in many promising areas of science and biomedical research. A complete list of the firm’s more than 100 journals, books, and newsmagazines is available on the Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers website.