The relationship between pre-eclampsia and obesity‌

Abstract Background: Preeclampsia is one of the common complications of pregnancy in under- developed countries and is caused by many predisposing factors such as gentics, immunologic and environmental factors. Objective: To determine the relationship between preeclampsia and obesity. Methods: The study was conducted on 180 preeclamptic women as case group and 180 healthy pregnant women as control group in Shahid Bahonar hospital of Kerman. Variables such as age, height, weight and parity were measured. Findings: The average age and parity of the case and control group were 24.7×3.4, 1.6×0.7 and 24.74×3.4, 1.55×0.7 respectively. 43.9% of cases were pre-eclamptic and 16.7% had normal obesity. The 0.99 confidence interval between obese rather than normal women (OR: 3.91) was 2.02 - 7.4. There was a significant relationship between obesity and pre-eclampsia (p<0.01). Conclusion: Women should be trained to control their weight before pregnancy to prevent the probable maternal and fetal mortalities.