Association Of Socioeconomic Status With Preeclampsia In Pakistani Females

Abstract

Introduction: To identify whether there is an association between maternal socioeconomic status as in living style, and preeclampsia in women from Pakistan, and if so, to what extent it increases the risk of developing preeclampsia. Methods: This is a case-control study, consisting of 74 normal pregnant and 76 already diagnosed preeclamptic Pakistani females, recruited from various hospitals in Karachi. Their socioeconomic status was assessed through the standard of living index (SLI) using the National Family Health Surveys (NFHS) criteria, which considers different living facilities as an indicator of socioeconomic status. Odds ratios of preeclampsia were calculated for low, middle and high socioeconomic status and other maternal anthropometric parameters. Results: Based on their groups, it appeared that the highest percentage of preeclamptic females (n= 65; 43.3%) and the lowest of control patients (n=14; 9.3%) lie in lower socioeconomic groups and the results were highly significantly different. Study observed that having lower socioeconomic status (P<0.001) significantly increase risk of having preeclampsia by 9% and middle socioeconomic status has no role in prevalence of preeclampsia shown by 0.0 odds ratio. In addition, odds ratio of age and PreBMI for the preeclamptic females were found as 1.37 (P<0.001) and 1.55 (P<0.001) respectively, which shows that each year increase in age, increases risk of preeclampsia by 1.37 times and 1.55 times with each increased in BMI. Conclusion: Living facilities are indications of socioeconomic status and are strong risk factors of preeclampsia