For the first time, US task force proposes expanding high blood pressure screening recommendations during pregnancy

By Jacqueline Howard, CNN

The US Preventive Services Task Force has released a draft recommendation to screen everyone who is pregnant for hypertensive disorders of pregnancy, by monitoring their blood pressure throughout the pregnancy, and the group is calling attention to racial inequities.

This is the first time the task force has proposed expanding these screening recommendations to include all hypertensive disorders of pregnancy, which are on the rise in the United States.

It means the average person might notice their doctor paying closer attention to their blood pressure measurements during pregnancy, as well as doctors screening not just for preeclampsia but for all disorders related to high blood pressure.

The draft recommendation statement and evidence review were posted online Tuesday for public comment. The statement is consistent with a 2017 statement that recommends screening with blood pressure measurements throughout pregnancy.

It was already recommended for blood pressure measurements to be taken during every prenatal visit, but “the difference is now really highlighting the importance of that — that this is a single approach that is very effective,” said Dr. Esa Davis, a member of the task force and associate professor of medicine at the University of Pittsburgh.

The draft recommendation urges doctors to monitor blood pressure during pregnancy as a “screening tool” for hypertensive disorders, she said, and this may reduce the risk of some hypertensive disorders among moms-to-be going undiagnosed or untreated.

“Since the process of screening and the clinical management is similar for all the hypertensive disorders of pregnancy, we’re broadening looking at screening for all of the hypertensive disorders, so gestational hypertension, preeclampsia, eclampsia,” Davis said.

A call to diagnose disorders early

The US Preventive Services Task Force, created in 1984, is a group of independent volunteer medical experts whose recommendations help guide doctors’ decisions. All recommendations are published on the task force’s website or in a peer-reviewed journal.

To make this most recent draft recommendation, the task force reviewed data on different approaches to screening for hypertensive disorders during pregnancy from studies published between January 2014 and January 2022, and it re-examined earlier research that had been reviewed for former recommendations.

“Screening using blood pressure during pregnancy at every prenatal encounter is a long-standing standard clinical practice that identifies hypertensive disorders of pregnancy; however, morbidity and mortality related to these conditions persists,” the separate Evidence-Based Practice Center, which informed the task force’s draft recommendation, wrote in the evidence review.

“Most pregnant people have their blood pressure taken at some point during pregnancy, and for many, a hypertensive disorder of pregnancy is first diagnosed at the time of delivery,” it wrote. “Diagnoses made late offer less time for evaluation and stabilization and may limit intervention options. Future implementation research is needed to improve access to regular blood pressure measurement earlier in pregnancy and possibly continuing in the weeks following delivery.”

The draft recommendation is a “B recommendation,” meaning the task force recommends that clinicians offer or provide the service, as there is either a high certainty that it’s moderately beneficial or moderate certainty that it’s highly beneficial.

For this particular recommendation, the task force concluded with moderate certainty that screening for hypertensive disorders in pregnancy, with blood pressure measurements, has a substantial net benefit.

Hypertensive disorders in pregnancy appear to be on the rise in the United States.

Data published last year by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that, between 2017 and 2019, the prevalence of hypertensive disorders among hospital deliveries increased from 13.3% to 15.9%, affecting at least 1 in 7 deliveries in the hospital during that time period.

Among deaths during delivery in the hospital, 31.6% — about 1 in 3 — had a documented diagnosis code for hypertensive disorder during pregnancy.

Older women, Black women and American Indian and Alaska Native women were at higher risk of hypertensive disorders, according to the data. The disorders were documented in approximately 1 in 3 delivery hospitalizations among women ages 45 to 55.

The prevalence of hypertensive disorders in pregnancy was 20.9% among Black women, 16.4% among American Indian and Alaska Native women, 14.7% among White women, 12.5% among Hispanic women and 9.3% among Asian or Pacific Islander women.

Communities of color at highest risk

The task force’s new draft recommendation could help raise awareness around those racial disparities and how Black and Native American women are at higher risk, Davis said.

“If this helps to increase awareness to make sure these high-risk groups are screened, that is something that is very, very important about this new recommendation,” she said. “It helps to get more women screened. It puts it more on the radar that they will then not just be screened but have the surveillance and the treatment that is offered based off of that screening.”

Communities of color are at the highest risk for hypertensive disorders during pregnancy, and “it’s very related to social determinants of health and access to care,” said Dr. Ilan Shapiro, chief health correspondent and medical affairs officer for the federally qualified community health center AltaMed Health Services in California. He was not involved with the task force or its draft recommendation.

Social determinants of health refer to the conditions and environments in which people live that can have a significant effect on their access to care, such as their income, housing, safety, and not living near sources for healthy food or easy transportation.

These social determinants of health, Shapiro said, “make a huge difference for the mother and baby.”

Hypertensive disorders during pregnancy can be controlled with regular monitoring during prenatal visits, he said, and the expectant mother would need access to care.

Eating healthy foods and getting regular exercise also can help get high blood pressure under control, and some blood pressure medications are considered safe to use during pregnancy, but patients should consult with their doctor.

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2023 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.