Pattern of non‐communicable diseases during pregnancy and their effect on feto‐maternal outcome: A prospective observational study

OBJECTIVE: To assess patterns of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and pregnancy outcomes of women in a tertiary care hospital. METHODS: This was a prospective observational study, conducted over 1 year. All NCDs in women who delivered or aborted were studied. Maternal and neonatal outcomes were noted. RESULTS: In all, 1003 NCDs occurred in 894 women. Chronic hypertension was the commonest, involving 309 (30.8%) women. Others included cardiovascular (159, 15.9%), neurological (142, 14.2%), endocrine (115, 11.5%), autoimmune (76, 7.6%), chronic kidney (48, 4.8%), and chronic respiratory (43, 4.3%) diseases, psychiatric disorders (38, 3.8%), cancers (20, 2.0%), and chronic liver disease (18, 1.8%). Most (599, 67.0%) were diagnosed before pregnancy and 145 (16.2%), 81 (9.1%), and 69 (7.7%) were diagnosed in the first, second, and third trimesters, respectively. Maternal deaths occurred in 6 (0.7%) women and near miss in 19 (2.1%) women. Only 9 (1.5%) women with NCD diagnosed before pregnancy had maternal near miss or death, compared with 16 (5.4%) diagnosed during pregnancy (P < 0.001). Of live births, 281 (35.3%) were low birth weight, 49 (6.1%) were very low birth weight, and 24 (3.0%) were extremely low birth weight. CONCLUSION: Chronic hypertension was the commonest NCD, which along with cardiovascular and neurological disorders constituted around 60% of all NCDs. One-third of NCDs were initially diagnosed during pregnancy. Maternal morbidity was lower if NCDs were diagnosed before pregnancy.