[Epidemiology of pre-eclampsia in Tizi-ouzou city (Algeria)]

Orientalism without Power?

Sent by the Chinese government on medical missions, Chinese female ob-gyns have served in rural and small-town public hospitals in Algeria and Morocco for more than fifty years. Yet little is known about the medical encounters or how the ob-gyns perceived patients and their health cultures. Drawing on untapped Chinese medical-mission literature, this article shows that the ob-gyns have since the 1980s constructed certain images of North African women as an inferior other, either reckless biological reproducers or incompetent health providers. In their criticisms of reproductive practices and female professionalism, they viewed local health policies and institutions through the prisms of modern obstetrics and Chinese gender rhetoric and ultimately bolstered their professional status at home in China. The article also suggests that while the ob-gyns were not attached to a hard-power colonial state apparatus, they retained considerable situational power over their patients.

Risk factors for hypertensive disorders of pregnancy among mothers in Tigray region, Ethiopia: matched case-control study

BACKGROUND

Hypertensive disorders of pregnancy are a global public health concern both in developed and developing countries. However, evidences regarding the risk factors of hypertensive disorders of pregnancy are limited particularly in Ethiopia. The aim of the study was to assess risk factors associated with hypertensive disorders of pregnancy among mothers in public hospitals of Tigray.

METHODS

The study was conducted in seven public hospitals of Tigray region, Ethiopia from June 2017 to November 2017. A facility based matched case-control study was employed to select 110 cases and 220 controls who were pregnant women. Cases and controls were matched by parity status. A case was a mother diagnosed to have hypertensive disorders of pregnancy by an obstetrician in the antenatal period while a control was a mother who did not have a diagnosis of hypertensive disorders of pregnancy. Data were collected by face to face interview technique using a pretested questionnaire and a checklist. Conditional logistic regression analysis was used to identify the independent predictor variables. Adjusted matched odds ratio with its corresponding 95% confidence interval was used and significance was claimed at P-value less than 0.05. Overall findings were presented in texts and tables.

RESULTS

Rural residents were at greater odds of suffering from hypertensive disorders (OR = 3.7, 95% CI; 1.9, 7.1). Similarly, mothers who consume less amount of fruits in their diet had 5 times higher odds of developing hypertensive disorders than those who consume fruits regularly (OR = 5.1, 95% CI; 2.4, 11.15). Overweight (BMI > 25 Kg/m2) mothers were also at risk of developing hypertensive disorders of pregnancy as compared with the normal and underweight mothers (AOR = 5.5 95% CI; 1.12, 27.6). The risk of developing hypertensive disorders of pregnancy was 5.4 times higher among diabetic mothers.

CONCLUSION

Rural residence, less fruit consumption, multiple pregnancy, presence of gestational diabetes mellitus and pre-pregnancy overweight were identified as independent risk factors in this study. It is recommended that health care givers may use these factors as a screening tool for the prediction, early diagnoses as well as timely interventions of hypertensive disorders of pregnancy.

Role of obesity in gestational hypertension in primigravidae women: A case control study in Shadegan, Iran

Background: Gestational hypertension is a serious problem among pregnant women in Shadegan. This study was conducted to estimate the prevalence and risk factors of gestational hypertension in these women.

Methods: In this study, the prevalence of gestational hypertension was estimated. Then, a case-control study was performed on 310 pregnant women with gestational hypertension and 930 healthy pregnant women in 2014. Multiple logistic regression was used to explore the possible risk factors. The analysis was repeated in a subgroup of primigravidae women to identify the risk factors that led to gestational hypertension. Results: The prevalence of gestational hypertension among pregnant women in Shadegan was 9.6%. Moreover, multiple logistic regression of all pregnant women showed that obese pregnant women were 1.79 times (OR = 1.79; 95%CI= 1.19-2.71; p<0.005) more likely to have gestational hypertension. Overweight and obese primigravidae women were 2.13 (OR= 2.1; 95%CI= 1.031-4.34; p<0.041) and 4.8 (OR= 2.4; 95%CI= 1.13-5.16; p<0.022) times more likely to have gestational hypertension than women with normal BMI, respectively. Age, education, history of gestational hypertension, and type of residential area of the primigravidae women were also significant factors.

Conclusion: BMI is the most important risk factor for gestational hypertension. More focus needs to be laid on this issue to raise awareness on the preservation of proper BMI before pregnancy, which can help decrease gestational hypertension.