Aspirin underutilized for preeclampsia prevention

(HealthDay)—Aspirin use is underused for preeclampsia prophylaxis in women with prepregnancy diabetes, obesity, or chronic hypertension or a combination of these factors, according to a research letter published in the Jan. 25 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Joel G. Ray, M.D., from St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto, and colleagues used data from the Better Outcomes Registry and Network to identify women with a hospital livebirth or stillbirth at ≥23 weeks of gestation (371,237 births; April 1, 2018, through Dec. 31, 2020) to estimate aspirin use for preeclampsia prevention in pregnant women with prepregnancy diabetes, obesity, chronic hypertension, and combinations of these factors.

The researchers found that aspirin was used by 3.2 percent of women without any of the three risk factors versus 17.2 percent of women with diabetes, 6.9 percent of women with obesity, and 27.6 percent of women with hypertension. For women with diabetes and obesity, the rate of aspirin use was 22.2 percent versus 36.6 percent in women with diabetes and hypertension, 32.3 percent in women with obesity and hypertension, and 38.8 percent in women with all three factors.

"For the 2021 U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommendations to be more influential, more data are needed to characterize barriers for aspirin adoption among suitable women at the patient and practitioner level, and additional knowledge translation initiatives developed," the authors write.

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