TOPLINE

Higher BMI before pregnancy was associated with an increased risk for hypertensive blood pressure (BP) after giving birth, and physical activity during pregnancy did not explain this link.

METHODOLOGY

• Researchers conducted a secondary analysis of a study to assess whether prepregnancy BMI was associated with postpartum hypertension and whether physical activity during pregnancy explained that link.
• They included 388 participants (mean age, 30.9 years) enrolled before 13 weeks of gestation at three US centers and followed them with trimester assessments and a visit 4-8 weeks after birth.
• Prepregnancy BMI was retrieved from medical records. Physical activity was measured using wearable monitors for 7 days each trimester.
• Researchers identified hypertensive postpartum BP as systolic BP ≥ 130 mm Hg or diastolic BP ≥ 80 mm Hg.

TAKEAWAY

• Overall, 28.1% of participants had a BP reading in the hypertensive range 4-8 weeks postpartum.
• Each 1-unit increase in prepregnancy BMI was associated with a 6.0% increased risk for hypertensive postpartum BP (risk ratio, 1.06; 95% CI, 1.04-1.09).
• Researchers identified three trajectories during pregnancy: active-declining, who started most active but became progressively less so; active-improving, who became more active as pregnancy progressed; and consistently sedentary. The groups included 142, 103, and 143 participants, respectively.
• The active-declining group had a lower risk for hypertensive postpartum BP compared with the consistently sedentary group, but this association attenuated after adjusting for prepregnancy BMI.

IN PRACTICE

"[The] findings suggest that prepregnancy BMI is strongly associated with a hypertensive postpartum blood pressure, whereas physical activity patterns during pregnancy are not," the researchers wrote.

SOURCE

The study was led by Jaclyn D. Borrowman, PhD, of Northwestern University in Chicago. It was published online on September 9 in the Journal of the American Heart Association.

LIMITATIONS

Most participants were White and relatively well-off, which may have limited the generalizability of the findings. Details on the use of BP medications in the postpartum period were not available. Prepregnancy weight was taken from the most recent chart entry.

DISCLOSURES

The cohort used for the study received funding from the National Institutes of Health. One author reported receiving a T32 training grant. The authors did not report any conflicts of interest.

This article was created using several editorial tools, including AI, as part of the process. Human editors reviewed this content before publication.