Number of pregnant women with high blood pressure has increased sharply in recent decades

The number of pregnant women with high blood pressure has been increasing over the past 40 years. Researchers looked at data from over 151 million women between 1970 and 2010, and while the overall prevalence of high blood pressure among pregnant women was less than 1%, the rate increased by roughly 6% every year. In 1970 some 0.1% of pregnant women had high blood pressure, but that figure in 2010 reached just over 1.5%. Although the yearly rate increase was higher in white women than in black women, black women were still twice as likely to have high blood pressure while pregnant. And these rates increased with the age of the mother. In a related editorial, experts write that there is a need to identify the best treatment for high blood pressure among women of reproductive age.