Incidence of Adverse Maternal Outcomes Among Pregnant Health Care Workers [ID 2683462

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: The objective of this study was to examine whether pregnant health care workers at are increased risk for adverse maternal outcomes in pregnancy. METHODS: A retrospective cohort study from 2008 to 2023 was conducted using TriNetX Research platform (de-identified patient data from a network of health care organizations) to identify pregnant health care workers. Using ICD codes, CPT codes, and LOINC codes, individuals were diagnosed with the presence or absence of the following conditions: fetal growth restriction, gestational diabetes mellitus, chronic hypertension, gestational hypertension, preeclampsia (with and without severe features), and postpartum depression. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the data. The University of Texas Medical Branch IRB approved this study as minimal-risk research using data collected for routine clinical practice and waived the requirement for informed consent. RESULTS: Among 1,553,793 patients, 34,099 were health care workers. Health care workers had increased incidences for the following adverse maternal outcomes: diet-controlled gestational diabetes (12.88% versus 9.95%; P<.001), oral hypoglycemic agent-controlled gestational diabetes (1.56% versus 1.02%; P<.001), insulin-controlled gestational diabetes (2.88% versus 1.73%; P<.001), gestational hypertension (3.04% versus 2.73%; P<.001), and preeclampsia with severe features (5.95% versus 4.23%; P<.001). Health care workers were at decreased incidences for fetal growth restriction, preeclampsia without severe features, and postpartum hemorrhage. CONCLUSION: Given that health care workers are at increased risk of several adverse maternal outcomes, it may be important for providers to screen health care workers more frequently for these adverse outcomes. Additional studies will need to be conducted using current identifiable electronic medical records.