A Cross-sectional Study on the Prevalence and Clinico-social Profile of High Risk Pregnancies in Rural Tamil Nadu, India

Introduction: Around 10-30% of mother during their antenatal period can be classified as high risk and out of these 70-80% accounts to perinatal morbidity or mortality. Special care must be given to women with high risk pregnancies to make sure the best possible outcomes. Early identification and regular followup of high risk pregnancies will reduce the loss of mother as well as newborn. Aim: To identify the prevalence of high risk pregnancies and factors associated with it in rural Tamil Nadu, India. Materials and Methods: Community-based cross-sectional study was conducted in rural field practice area of Department of Community Medicine, Annapoorana Medical College, Salem, Tamil Nadu, India. High risk pregnancies were identified using a pretested semi-structured questionnaire and a scoring system developed by Dutta and Das (1990) on a 235 women of more than 20 weeks of pregnancy. The association between high risk pregnancies and socio-demographic variables were analysed. The frequency, percentage and analytical statistics was done using Pearson Chi-square test. Results: Total of 235 pregnant mothers who were interviewed for the prevalence of high risk pregnancy was found to be 15.32%, Moderate and high risk pregnancies combined were 42.13% whereas 57.87% were of low risk pregnancy with no known risk factors. Major risk factors identified were anaemia (33.19%), undernutrition (31.06%), previous Lower Segment Caesarean Section (LSCS) (13.62%), abortion (8.51%). Early and late age at pregnancy was not associated with moderate to high risk pregnancy. Parity and high socio-economic condition were significantly associated with high risk pregnancy. Conclusion: The present study found that 42.13% pregnancies were moderate to high risk pregnancies. Early detection of these high risk pregnancies must be done at primary healthcare level using a uniform scoring system by a trained health workers, which may reduce the adverse events.