Prevalence of Medical Disorders in Pregnancy in Ebonyi State University Teaching Hospital

Background: Pregnancy is a physiological state, but when associated with an underlying medical disorder, it has a large impact on the well‑being of a mother. The pattern of medical disorders has been documented to have changed over the years. Aim: This study seeks to retrospectively determine the incidence of medical disorders in pregnancy, and to determine the trend over a 5‑year period in Ebonyi State University Teaching Hospital (EBSUTH). Materials and Methods: This was a retrospective study of all medical cases in pregnancy managed in EBSUTH from 1st of January 2006 to 31st December 2010. Data were analyzed using Epi‑Info statistical package. The results were presented in simple tables. Test statistics was set at 95% confidence interval. Results: A total of 339 medical cases in pregnancy of 2117 admissions were managed during the study period (16.0%). Mean (SD) age of the women was 28.05 (5.36) years and age ranged 15‑45 years for about 314 cases that had the age documented. Of the 339 cases, a total of 149 cases of malaria occurred during the study period (149/339; 44%), out of which only 104 were malaria alone. The rest (45 in number) occurred with urinary tract infection, pregnancy‑induced hypertension, Diabetes mellitus, lobar pneumonia, and anemia in pregnancy. This was followed by hypertensive disorders which account for 29.2% of all cases of medical disorders. Urinary tract infection ranked third (20.7% of all medical disorder). The incidence of malaria was 7% (149/2117), that of hypertensive disorder was 4.7% (99/2117), and of Urinary Tract Infection was 3.1% (65/2117). Others include anemia in pregnancy 0.6% (13/2117), Diabetes mellitus 0.4% (9/2117), and Gastroenteritis 0.4% (9/2117). There is no statistical difference between the incidences of medical complications over the study period. Conclusion: There is relatively little change in the incidences of medical complication over the studied period. Malaria played a very important role in the prevalence of medical complications in pregnancy. Preventive strategies may have reduced the prevalence over the years. However, more effort is needed to markedly reduce the medical complications in pregnancy.

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