A Retrospective Review of the Seasonality of Pre-Eclampsia

This study is a retrospective review of obstetrics charts of women who gave birth at OSU Medical Center between January 01, 2005 and December 31, 2007.

Included will be patient charts of women > 18 years old who were admitted to OSUMC for delivery (both cesarean and vaginal deliveries) between 1/1/05 and 12/31/07, with and without a diagnosis of pre-eclampsia. The data collected will be recorded in a spreadsheet by month/day of delivery, and whether pre-eclampsia was a diagnosis. Also included will be total number of deliveries per month and total number of pre-eclampsia diagnoses per month. The rate of pre-eclampsia will be calculated.

A contingency table with corresponding chi square test will be performed to determine whether there is a significant relationship of the diagnosis of pre-eclampsia with seasonality, defined primarily by month. Certain data occurring during transition periods between seasons may be excluded from analyses.