Risk Factors for Pre-Eclampsia among Working Women in Mexico

This study examined risk factors for pre-eclampsia/eclampsia in a population-based sample of pregnant working women in Mexico City. Over a 3-month period, all women who gave birth at three major hospitals and who had worked for at least 3 months during pregnancy were interviewed. After excluding mothers with multiple gestations or infants with birth defects, and previous diagnoses of hypertension, chronic renal disease or diabetes, 131 of 2436 women (5.4%) had been diagnosed with pre-eclampsia and/or eclampsia. The frequency was much higher among women of low socio-economic status: 12% of uninsured women (SSA) compared with 4.2% of private sector employees (IMSS) and 1.3% of public sector employees (ISSSTE). After adjusting for education, women working in services (OR = 1.68, 95% CI = 1.01, 2.81) and in retail (OR = 1.99, 95% CI = 1.18, 3.37), primiparae (OR = 2.64, 95% CI = 1.65, 4.21) and women whose pregestational weight was 55 kg (OR = 2.02, 95% CI = 1.34, 3.04) were at increased risk. Efforts to develop and evaluate intervention programmes should target hospitals serving the uninsured (SSA) if reduction in the number of preventable maternal deaths in Mexico is to be achieved. Such programmes should also target service and retail workers and identify women with poor glycaemic control early in pregnancy.