Gestational diabetes to type 2 diabetes

A prior diagnosis of gestational diabetes (GDM) increases the lifetime risk of type 2 diabetes by up to 60%. Identification of women at higher risk of diabetes development allows for the prompt implementation of strategies to postpone or prevent diabetes start. However, there is considerable variation in the research about the proportion of women with a history of GDM who acquire diabetes.

A big study has discovered that women who have diabetes during pregnancy (gestational diabetes) can minimize their chance of developing type 2 diabetes by leading a healthy lifestyle.

Gestational diabetes  affects around 8% of pregnancies in the United States. 14 The disorder's prevalence is increasing, possibly due to a combination of increased obesity and mother age. Women with a history of gestational diabetes mellitus have a 10-fold increased chance of developing type 2 diabetes when compared to the general population.


Analysis

According to BCM, women were monitored starting from the day they were diagnosed with gestational diabetes for survival analyses. Following up started from the earliest date of the diagnosis of gestational diabetes for women who had more than one pregnancy throughout the research period. By using univariate and multivariate Cox regression, the associations between putative risk variables and the onset of T2D were examined. From these analyses, hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were derived.

Age, history of gestational diabetes, family genetic diabetes, usage of insulin during pregnancy, average weekly weight gain and weight, were entered as an independent variable, with T2D diagnosis as the dependent variable.

Results

Data were taken from the records of 285 women, 164 of whom met the gestational requirements and were thus included in the research since they had never been diagnosed with Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes.

Of the remaining women, 75 had Type 1 diabetes, 12 had Type 2, 2 had gestational diabetes in the first trimester, and 1 had young-onset diabetes with maturity. Another 21 women were labeled as borderline GDM because they had high blood glucose levels but did not match the GDM criterion.

Women diagnosed with GDM (Gestational diabetes) varied in age from 16 to 43, with a mean age of 30. Table 1 displays further demographic characteristics. Women were more likely to be from greater deprivation regions than lower deprivation ones. A third of the women had a positive family history of diabetes, and the majority were expecting their first or second child. The majority of the women in this research did not have their BMI reported.

During the follow-up period, 41 women (25%) developed T2D. The period between GDM diagnosis and T2D diagnosis ranged from 4 months to over 16 years, with a mean of 93 months (SD = 48.2) or nearly 8 years. Only three (7.3%) of these women got T2D within two years of their GDM diagnosis, and a further four (9.8%) developed T2D two to four years later.

My conclusion

In conclusion, this study clearly demonstrates how a diagnosis of GDM can have a negative influence on health that lasts long beyond the pregnancy. This study identifies women with GDM who are most at risk of advancing from GDM to T2D and should be prioritized for preventative intervention. It also shows that the majority of women have a realistic temporal window to avoid progression from GDM to T2D.

While a diagnosis of GDM presents a perfect opportunity for an intervention to lessen the growing burden of T2D, figuring out the most efficient method and best time to encourage women who are going through a particularly busy time in their lives to make lifestyle changes is still a problem that requires further research.