Identifying Barriers To Healthy Eating In Pregnant Women With Hypertension, Hypertensive Disorders Of Pregnancy, Or Risk Factors For Hypertensive Disorders Of Pregnancy

Introduction: Heart healthy diets are important in the prevention and treatment of hypertension (HTN). In pregnant women, the lifestyle barriers to healthy eating are not well-described in literature. Hypothesis: There are personal, environmental, and economic barriers impacting adherence to a healthy diet in pregnant women with HTN, hypertensive disorders of pregnancy (HDP), or risk factors for HDP. Methods: Pregnant women, aged 20-50 (N=28), diagnosed with HTN, HDP, or risk factors for HDP were recruited from a large academic medical center. Participants completed an electronic survey assessing personal, environmental, and economic barriers to healthy eating. A 5-point Likert scale was used, ranging from strongly agree to strongly disagree. Results: The average age of participants was 31.8 (SD=4.5) from urban (34.6%), suburban (34.6%), and rural (30.8%) communities. Finances and time were major barriers to healthy eating, reported by 39.3% and 28.6% of participants, respectively, with 17.8% reporting that they could not afford to eat healthy consistently for all meals (Figure 1). Additionally, 10.7% and 7.1% were unaware of factors promoting healthy eating such as awareness of outside healthy eating resources and confidence in their ability to eat healthy given a new pregnancy. Meanwhile, 28.6% and 17.9% reported ambivalence towards these factors. Conclusion: Time management and financial costs emerged as the greatest challenges to healthy eating in pregnant women with or at risk for HDP. These barriers, in addition to certain factors promoting healthy eating, may represent areas of intervention that can help mitigate the obstacles to healthy eating in this vulnerable group.