Introduction: Gestational hypertension is seen in 10% of pregnant women and is associated with fetal and maternal complications such as preterm birth, intrauterine growth retardation, asphyxia, fetal death, pre-and postpartum hemorrhage and maternal mortality. Sleep apnea is one of the factors that may be associated with Gestational hypertension. The present study has been implemented to investigate the relationship between sleep apnea and gestational hypertension.
Methods: This case-control study was conducted on 15 hypertensive diabetic and 45 normotensive diabetic pregnant women referred to diabetes center in Saqqez, Iran in 2013. Berlin questionnaire and blood pressure chart were used to collect data. Data were analyzed by SPSS software (version 18), independent t-test, chi-square and Fisher exact tests. P value less than 0.05 was considered significant.
Results: 9 cases (20%) of the normotensive diabetic pregnant mothers and 8 cases (53.3%) of hypertensive diabetic pregnant women and had sleep apnea, and the risk of hypertension in mothers with sleep apnea was 4.5 times higher than mothers without sleep apnea.
Conclusion: There is a relationship between sleep apnea and hypertension among women with gestational diabetes.