The SPOT study
The SPOT study
The SPOT-study aims to improve the quality of care for women with hypertensive disorders of pregnancy. Hypertensive disorders of pregnancy are among the top-3 causes of disease and death among pregnant women globally, and especially in low resources settings such as sub-Saharan Africa.
By improving quality of care, we hope to contribute to better health of women and their children.
The SPOT-study takes place in Ghana, in a collaboration between researchers from Ghana, the Netherlands, the United States and Canada. The research group is composed of clinicians, epidemiologists, geneticists, public health experts, anthropologists and ethicists. Together, we aim to answer the following questions:
- To externally validate the fullPIERS and miniPIERS prediction models, and develop a simple, user friendly, numeric Severe Pre-eclampsia adverse Outcome Triage (SPOT) score to assist clinical decision making in severe early pre-eclampsia (SPOT-VAL).
- To quantify the relationship between fetal (and maternal) APOL1 status and preeclampsia and assess whether this can predict pre-eclampsia (SPOT-BIO).
- To understand the views on ‘good care’ of various stakeholders in the care of Hypertension Disorders in Pregnancy (HDP): health professionals, health management and pregnant women themselves.
- To assess impact of SPOT-score combined with shared-decision making tool implementation (SPOT-impact).
- To assess the incidence of mental health disorders among women with pregnancies complicated by an early HDP.
The SPOT-study consortium consists of the following organizations:
- Ghana Health Services, Accra, Ghana
- Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital/University of Ghana Medical School
- H3Africa Kidney Network
- UMC Utrecht, The Netherlands
- University of Tennessee
- University of Ghana, Noguchi Institute for Biomedical Research
- University of Amsterdam
- University of British Columbia
- Royal Tropical Institue (KIT)
- Action on Preeclampsia Ghana (APEC-GH)
- Share-Net
- FIGO
This study is financially supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Dutch Research Council (NWO-ORC), University of Tennessee, UMC Utrecht, and in-kind contributions of the involved organizations
Research team:
Prof. Dr. Diederick E. Grobbee
Drs. Klaartje Olde Loohuis
Dr. Hannah Brown-Amaokoh
full overview of all our collaborators, both in the UMC Utrecht and elsewhere