Delivery Hospitalizations Involving Preeclampsia and Eclampsia, 2005-2014 #222

Delivery Hospitalizations Involving Preeclampsia and Eclampsia, 2005-2014 #222

Black Women Diagnosed Far More Often Than White Women With Preeclampsia or Eclampsia

The rates of preeclampsia and eclampsia – disorders that can cause high blood pressure, kidney and liver problems, or seizures during pregnancy – were 60 percent higher for black women than for white women in 2014, according to an AHRQ analysis of hospital births. The statistical brief also found the disorders were likely to be more severe among black women. Overall, hospital births involving preeclampsia and eclampsia increased by 21 percent from 2005 to 2014. In 2014, 5 percent of all hospital births – or nearly 177,000 – were affected. Procedures such as cesarean section, blood transfusion, hysterectomy and ventilation were more common among women with preeclampsia and eclampsia, and the average length and cost of hospital stays involving these conditions were 70 percent higher than other deliveries. The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force has released a recommendation that all pregnant women be screened for preeclampsia. The task force is an independent, volunteer group of national experts in prevention and evidence-based medicine that makes recommendations about clinical preventive services such as screening tests, counseling services and preventive medications.

April 2017

Delivery Hospitalizations Involving Preeclampsia and Eclampsia, 2005-2014

Kathryn R. Fingar, Ph.D., M.P.H., Iris Mabry-Hernandez, M.D., M.P.H., Quyen Ngo-Metzger, M.D., M.P.H., Tracy Wolff, M.D., M.P.H., Claudia A. Steiner, M.D., M.P.H., and Anne Elixhauser, Ph.D. 

Highlights

In 2014, almost 5 percent of all inpatient deliveries involved preeclampsia/eclampsia—a 21 percent increase from 2005. Of the nearly 177,000 deliveries with the condition in 2014, 1 percent had eclampsia, 37 percent had severe preeclampsia, 47 percent had mild/unspecified preeclampsia, and 15 percent had preeclampsia/eclampsia with preexisting hypertension. For black women, the rate of preeclampsia/eclampsia was 70 per 1,000 deliveries in 2014—60 percent higher than for white women (43 per 1,000). The condition was less severe among white women than among black women. Over half of white women with the condition had mild/unspecified preeclampsia, compared with 37 percent of black women. Compared with other deliveries, a higher percentage of those with preeclampsia/eclampsia were among women who were the youngest, the oldest, black, and from the poorest areas and the South. Compared with other deliveries, mean length and cost of stays with preeclampsia/eclampsia were 70 percent higher. Procedural interventions (such as cesarean section, blood transfusion, hysterectomy, ventilation) were more common among deliveries with preeclampsia/eclampsia than among other deliveries, as were severe obstetric morbidities