Date of Award

2027

Document Type

Capstone

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Physician Assistant Studies

Committee Chair

LaDonna Clark

Abstract

Hypertensive disorders of pregnancy (HDP), including preeclampsia, are one of the leading causes of maternal mortality in the world. The purpose of this literature review is to evaluate the effectiveness of nonpharmacological interventions, including supervised exercise, Mediterranean dietary patterns, and mindfulness-based therapies, in reducing and preventing HDPs and maternal mortality overall. A review of the current literature was conducted using PubMed, with a final search using the terms “preeclampsia,” “exercise,” “stress reduction,” and “maternal mortality.” With the use of certain filters applied to the search, results were condensed to 10 articles for review. Of the articles reviewed, it was found that supervised exercise provided the strongest evidence for reducing HDP, with a meta-analysis report of a 46-48% reduction in risk of HDP.  Mediterranean diets were shown to produce lower rates of HDP in groups that had the highest adherence, and mindfulness-based interventions improved maternal blood pressure, although larger studies are needed for results to be statistically significant. Overall, the evidence shown in current studies suggests that supervised exercise and Mediterranean diets are effective at lowering the risk for HDPs, and mindfulness training shows positive trends as well. Although pharmacological interventions are standard of care for those at high risk or already with disease, nonpharmacological interventions demonstrate promising findings if used as complementary to the standard.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License

Download

Share

COinS