Frequency of Obesity, Associated Factors and Fetomaternal Outcome in Women Coming for Antenatal Care at Lady Willingdon Hospital, Lahore

Abstract

Abstract
Background and Objective: Obesity is now taking the shape of an epidemic worldwide and is on the rise
among women of reproductive age especially over the last 40 years. This happening has a major bearing on
reproductive outcomes as per latest studies. During pregnancy and childbirth, obese women are more likely
to develop fetomaternal complications than women with a normal body mass index (BMI). The objective was
to determine the frequency of normal weight, over weight and obese women among those presenting for
antenatal care and to compare the fetomaternal outcome in different BMI categories.
Methods: This descriptive cross sectional study was conducted from 29 October 2022 to 29 April 2023 at
Lady Willingdon Hospital, Lahore. 200 subjects meeting the inclusion criteria were enrolled in the study after
informed consent. BMI was recorded and weight category assigned. All relevant details noted on especially
designed performa. Data analysis was done using SPSS No. 24.
Results: Frequency of obesity in pregnant females was recorded as 25.5 %( n=51) and overweight women as
40.5 %( 81). A total of 200 females with an overall mean age of 29.9 ± 3.5 years were included in this study.
The mean body mass index was 27.5 ± 3.9. The proportion of preeclampsia was significantly (p-value < 0.05)
higher in obese women (31.9%) followed by overweight (22.2%) and normal women (15.6%), respectively.
Likewise, the rate of eclampsia (22.8%, 13.6% and 8.3%), gestational diabetes (28.6%, 18.5, and 9.7%) and
hypertension (27.7%, 16.1% and 11.4%) was also significantly higher in obese women followed by overweight
women and normal weight women. In addition, a significant (p-value < 0.05) greater rate of C-section (41.5%
vs. 35.8% vs. 14.4%) was reported in obese weight groups as compared to overweight versus normal weight
women.Themean birthweight of newbornwassignificantly higherin obesewomen as compared to overweight
and normal weight women. Six (11.8%) babies born to obese women were macrosomic and only (1.3% and
1.5%) babies hadmacrosomia in overweight and normalweightwomen.APGARscore at 1minute and 5minute
wassignificantly higher in normal weight women followed by overweight and obese women. The requirement
of admission to NICU was statistically significantly higher in obese women (55.4%) followed by overweight
(45.7%) and normal weight women (28.3%).
Conclusion: Fetomaternal morbidity is significantly increased in obese and overweight pregnant females.
Keywords: Pregnancy, obese, over-weight, prevalence, fetomaternal, outcome.