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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2021 Jul 1.
Published in final edited form as: Obstet Gynecol. 2020 Jul;136(1):129–139. doi: 10.1097/AOG.0000000000003885

Table 1.

Characteristics of participants

Characteristic Normal BP Elevated BP Stage 1 Hypertension Stage 2 Hypertension P value*
N (%) 13640 (75.1) 2529 (13.9) 988 (5.4) 1005 (5.5)
Age (years) 29.7 ± 5.4 29.0 ± 5.7 30.2 ± 5.2 31.4 ± 5.3 <0.001
Pre-pregnancy BMI (kg/m2) 25.7 ± 5.6 30.7 ± 7.2 32.6 ± 7.8 35.1 ± 9.3 <0.001
Gestational weight gain category <0.001
 Inadequate 2742 (21.5) 513 (21.6) 194 (21.0) 291 (31.7)
 Adequate 3822 (30.0) 570 (24.0) 252 (27.3) 226 (24.6)
 Excessive 6165 (48.4) 1289 (54.3) 477 (51.7) 401 (43.7)
Race <0.001
 White 9588 (70.3) 1663 (65.8) 764 (77.3) 611 (60.8)
 Black or African American 2565 (18.8) 729 (28.8) 176 (17.8) 362 (36.0)
 Other/Not Specified 1487 (10.9) 137 (5.4) 48 (4.9) 32 (3.2)
Ethnicity 0.62
 Hispanic or Latino 197 (1.4) 37 (1.5) 7 (0.7) 12 (1.2)
 Not Hispanic or Latino 12297 (90.2) 2288 (90.5) 897 (90.8) 911 (90.6)
 Declined/Not Specified 1146 (8.4) 204 (8.1) 84 (8.5) 82 (8.2)
Current smoker 1217 (9.5) 295 (12.4) 81 (8.8) 122 (13.1) <0.001
Pre-existing diabetes 142 (1.0) 34 (1.3) 32 (3.2) 102 (10.1) <0.001
First delivery 5971 (45.6) 1208 (49.8) 471 (49.6) 379 (39.7) <0.001
Gestational age at first prenatal visit (weeks) 9.7 ± 2.5 9.5 ± 2.4 10.0 ± 2.5 9.2 ± 2.5 <0.001
Number of visits before 20 weeks of gestation 2.9 ± 0.9 3.0 ± 0.9 2.8 ± 0.8 3.3 ± 1.1 <0.001
Average SBP before 20 weeks of gestation (mmHg) 109.7 ± 6.2 123.1 ± 2.6 124.8 ± 6.9 128.3 ± 10.2 <0.001
Average DBP before 20 weeks of gestation (mmHg) 66.6 ± 5.9 70.8 ± 5.9 79.7 ± 5.0 77.1 ± 8.7 <0.001

Blood pressure group was assigned based on the highest eligible category for either average systolic or average diastolic blood pressure before 20 weeks of gestation; stage 2 hypertension includes women with diagnostic codes for chronic hypertension in addition to women who met blood pressure criteria.

BP, blood pressure; BMI, body mass index; SBP, systolic blood pressure; DBP, diastolic blood pressure

Data are n (%) or mean ± standard deviation

*

P values for continuous and categorical variables were generated from ANOVA F test and Pearson chi-square/Exact chi-square test, respectively.

Pairwise comparison with normal BP group significant at p<0.05 level. For multi-category variables (race, gestational weight gain), p value presented is for overall test of differences between groups.

Gestational weight gain category was defined according to Institute of Medicine Criteria(31) Due to missing data (n=1220), subgroup totals do not add up to column total