Influence of previous abortions and new paternity on the risk of hypertension in nulliparous parturients in Ibadan: A cohort study

Aim: This study aims to determine the influence of previous abortions and new paternity on the risk of hypertension in a cohort of nulliparous women. Methods: A prospective cohort study was conducted with development of hypertension in pregnancy as outcome variable. Explanatory variables were previous abortions and paternity. Univariate analysis was by t-test, ² test and Fisher's exact test where applicable. Logistic regression was utilized for multivariate analysis. Stata was utilized for all the analyses. The level of statistical significance was set as P < 0.05. Results: Same paternity abortions reduced the risk of hypertension (OR 0.48, 95% CI 0.31-0.73). Previous abortions did not reduce the odds of hypertension in pregnancy (OR 1.25, 95% CI 0.83-1.88). Rural dwelling reduced the odds of developing hypertension in pregnancy (OR 0.54, 95% CI 0.42-0.70). Conclusion: The result of this study supports the immunological theory of the etiology of hypertension in pregnancy.