A research agenda for hypertensive disorders in pregnancy in Ghana through a priority setting partnership

Hypertensive disorders of pregnancy are among the leading causes of maternal and perinatal morbidity and mortality in Ghana. Despite this high burden, research priorities have historically been shaped by academic, funding, policy and industry actors, with limited engagement of patients and survivors, their carers and health care professionals. Their lived experiences offer critical insights that can complement traditional research agendas. Priority Setting Partnerships aim to address this gap by involving these stakeholders in identifying future research needs. This study aimed to identify research topics for improving care for hypertensive disorders of pregnancy in Ghana, based on these stakeholder perspectives. A priority setting partnership was conducted using an integrated approach that combined the James Lind Alliance priority setting guidance with the Research for Health Justice Ethical Toolkit to ensure ethical and contextual relevance. We show that the top 10 research priorities were related to diagnosis timing and accuracy, pathogenesis, care provision challenges, awareness, mental health and coping, shared decision making, preconception care and drug adverse effects. This is based on 774 responses obtained, between February and August 2024, from 238 participants across Ghana, consolidated into 51 research areas. A second survey completed by 243 participants prioritizes these areas into 25 interim priorities. These priorities are further refined during the final prioritization workshop into a list of 10 research priorities. This study demonstrates how locally grounded and ethically informed priority setting partnerships can be conducted in low- and middle-income settings and provide community-driven research priorities to guide future research on hypertensive disorders of pregnancy in Ghana. High blood pressure during pregnancy is a major cause of illness and death for mothers and babies in Ghana. However, research to improve this condition is often shaped by researchers and funders only, with limited input from the people most affected. This study aimed to identify the most important research topics for improving care for women with high blood pressure during pregnancy, based on views of the patients, their families and healthcare workers. We used surveys and group discussions to collect questions and concerns from people across Ghana and worked with them to agree on a final list of research priorities. Ten key research priorities were finalized, including early diagnosis, quality of care, mental health support and shared decision making. These findings can help guide future research so that it better reflects the real needs of the women. Duijvendijk et al., conduct a national priority setting partnership in Ghana that engages patients, caregivers, and healthcare professionals to identify research needs in hypertensive disorders of pregnancy. They show that this bottom-up participatory approach which generates a shared top ten of research expectation highlighting the community’s needs to guide future research agendas.