Literature search and study selection
Searches of Ovid Medline, Embase, CENTRAL (The Cochrane Library), Cinahl
and Emcare were carried out to identify studies reporting on race and
PE. The search was carried out on the 10th August 2021
with no restriction for starting date but was restricted to English
language records only; the initial search was updated with autoalerts in
Medline to 31st December 2021. A list of relevant
citations was generated from these databases using the search strategies
given in Appendix 1. This review was registered in PROSPERO
international database for systematic reviews (reference:
CRD42021267548).
The abstracts of citations were examined by two reviewers (A.A. and
D.V.) to identify all potentially relevant articles, which were then
examined in full-text form. Reference lists of relevant original and
review articles were hand-searched for additional reports. Agreement
about potential relevance was reached by consensus and by consultation
with a third reviewer (K.H.N.). The inclusion criteria were
peer-reviewed studies reporting on PE in singleton pregnancies according
to the racial origin of women so that the rate of PE could be compared
in black and South and East Asian women to the rate in white women. We
excluded twin pregnancies, case-control studies and review articles or
guidelines and articles in which PE and GH were not given separately.