Investigating Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) on Pregnancy Outcomes of Pregnant Women with Chronic and Gestational Hypertension

 Hypertension during pregnancy is associated with significant negative outcomes. In this study, we evaluated the effectiveness of dietary approaches to stop hypertension (DASH) on pregnancy outcomes of pregnant women with gestational and chronic hypertension.

 This randomized controlled clinical trial study was conducted on 60 pregnant women with a diagnosis of gestational hypertension and chronic hypertension. Women were randomly divided into the control (n=30) and the DASH diet (n=30) groups for 2 months and were followed until delivery. The outcomes of maternal pregnancy including the incidence of preeclampsia, placental abruption and preterm delivery (<37 weeks) were assessed during follow-up examinations. Birth weight and minute 1 and minute 5 Apgar score of the infant were also assessed.

 After 1 and 2 months of intervention, systolic and diastolic blood pressure in the DASH diet group was significantly lower than the control group (P<0.05). The incidence of preeclampsia (P=0.035), preterm delivery (P=0.020) and placental abruption (P=0.007) in the DASH diet group was significantly lower than the control group. The mean gestational age at the time of termination of pregnancy was not significantly different between the two groups (P = 0.467). There was no significant difference between minute 1 and minute 5 Apgar scores of the infants and the mean birth weight of the infants was not significantly different between the DASH and control groups (P = 0.756, P = 0.115 and P = 0.101, respectively).

The DASH diet could be used as an effective strategy to improve the clinical outcomes of pregnant women with gestational and chronic hypertension.