Pregnant Women at Increasing Risk for Chronic Conditions

Pregnant women today are more likely to have chronic conditions that could cause life-threatening complications than at any other time in the past decade, a new study suggests.

The study looked at a national sample of more than 8 million childbirth deliveries over 10 years and analyzed the how common chronic conditions, such as asthma, diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, and substance-abuse disorders were in the mothers.

Although frequency of these conditions increased over time among every socio-economic group studied, the largest spike occurred among women from rural and low-income communities and among patients with deliveries funded by Medicaid.

West Virginia is the third poorest state in the union and a third of the population are on Medicaid.

The study was done by researchers at Michigan Medicine. The findings were published in the official publication of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.

Appalachia Health News is a project of West Virginia Public Broadcasting, with support from the Marshall Health, Charleston Area Medical Center and WVU Medicine.