Table 1.

Characteristics of women with and without hypertensive disorders in pregnancy, Nova Scotia, 1988–2000.

Variable	Normotensive n = 121,760	Mild PIH n = 10,460	Severe PIH n = 1,770	HELLP n = 202	Eclampsia n = 32	Chronic HTN n = 767	Chronic HTN +PIH n = 475
Mean age in years (SD)	27.8 (5.3)	27.5 (5.4)*	26.9 (5.7)*	28.9 (5.5)*	25.6 (6.8)*	31.1 (5.0)*	30.5 (5.1)*
Married (%)	84,739 (69.6)	7,530 (72.0)	1,124 (63.5)*	145 (71.8)	18 (56.3)	638 (83.2)*	367 (77.3)*
Nulliparous (%)	51,057 (41.9)	6,760 (64.6)*	1,328 (75.0)*	158 (78.2)*	20 (62.5)*	324 (42.2)*	259 (54.5)*
Mean prepregnancy weight in kg (SD)	64.4 (13.8)	70.6 (16.7)*	67.6 (15.6)*	66.8 (16.0)*	68.2 (16.9)	82.0 (20.9)*	81.3 (20.9)*
Mean weight gain in kg (SD)	14.4 (6.0)	16.2 (6.9)*	16.5 (6.9)*	14.8 (7.0)	16.2 (6.2)	12.2 (6.7)*	13.2 (7.3)*
Smokes any cigarettes (%)	35,846 (30.7)	2,157 (21.5)*	376 (22.7)*	31 (16.0)*	6 (21.4)	150 (20.4)*	59 (13.0)*
Anemia (%)	3,441 (2.8)	242 (2.3)*	78 (4.3)*	15 (7.4)*	0 (0)	31 (4.1)	20 (4.2)
Gestational Diabetes (%)	2,749 (2.3)	485 (4.6)*	84 (4.8)*	3 (1.5)	2 (6.3)	70 (9.1)*	34 (7.2)*
Preexisting Diabetes (%)	331 (0.3)	85 (0.8)*	29 (1.6)*	4 (2.0)*	0 (0)	19 (2.5)*	9 (1.9)*
Anti-hypertensive medication (%)	0 (0)	107 (1.0)	97 (5.5)	23 (11.4)	5 (15.6)	146 (19.0)	122 (25.7)
Twins (%)	1,231 (1.0)	244 (2.3)*	60 (3.4)*	13 (6.4)*	0 (0)	7 (0.9)	13 (2.7)*

PIH denotes pregnancy induced hypertension, HELLP denotes hemolysis, elevated liver enzymes, low platelets syndrome, HTN denotes hypertension. * Denotes hypertension categories significantly different from the normotensive category.