Missed opportunity for aspirin prophylaxis for preeclampsia prevention: a cross-sectional study from Sub-Saharan Africa

BACKGROUND: Recent studies showed that aspirin for preeclampsia prevention is underused despite its effectiveness in preventing preeclampsia among patients with moderate and high risk factors. Little is known about this issue in the Sub-Saharan setting, including Ethiopia. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to determine the missed opportunity for aspirin prophylaxis among candidates for this preeclampsia preventive intervention at a national tertiary referral hospital in Ethiopia. STUDY DESIGN: This was a cross-sectional study on pregnant women who had preeclampsia and who were managed at the St. Paul's Hospital Millennium Medical College (Ethiopia) over a 6-month period (April 1-September 30, 2023). Data were collected prospectively using a structured questionnaire. The primary outcome was the proportion of women who had an indication for aspirin prophylaxis for preeclampsia prevention but were not given the opportunity (missed opportunity for aspirin) among all pregnant preeclampsia patients presenting to our hospital. Secondary outcomes were adverse maternal and perinatal outcomes. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 23. Descriptive statistics were employed to analyze the data. Proportions and percentages were used to present the results. RESULTS: A total of 427 pregnant women with preeclampsia were screened for inclusion and 32 of them were excluded based on the study criteria. Among the 395 pregnant women with preeclampsia who were included in the final analysis, 195 (50.6%) had an indication for aspirin prophylaxis for the prevention of preeclampsia. The mean systolic and diastolic blood pressure measurements at presentation were 153.8±12.8 and 100.6±8.5 mm Hg, respectively. Most patients had proteinuria (51.7% of the participants had a urine test-strip protein level of +2, whereas 18.5% [74/395] had a urine test-strip protein level of +1 and 10.9% had 24-hour urine protein levels in the preeclampsia range). Among the women who had an indication for aspirin prophylaxis, only 1.1% received aspirin (the missed opportunity for aspirin prophylaxis for preeclampsia prevention was 98.9%). The perinatal morality rate was 11.9%, whereas the neonatal intensive care unit admission rate was 20.5%. The rate of a low Apgar score at 5 minutes was 8.9%. Eight mothers (2.1%) developed hemolysis, elevated liver enzymes, and low platelet count syndrome, whereas another 3 (0.8%) mothers developed a pulmonary edema. CONCLUSION: In this study, the missed opportunity for administration of aspirin prophylaxis for the prevention of preeclampsia was high although more than half of the study subjects were candidates for this preventive intervention. Preeclampsia was also associated with higher rates of adverse perinatal outcomes and serious maternal morbidity.