Rates and Risk Factors for Recurrence of Gestational Diabetes

• Published in: Diabetes care Vol. 24; no. 4; pp. 659 - 662
• Main Authors: MACNEILL, Siephanie, DODDS, Linda, HAMILTON, David C, ARMSON, B. Anthony, VANDENHOF, M
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Alexandria, VA American Diabetes Association 01.04.2001
• Subjects: Analysis of Variance; Biological and medical sciences; Birth Weight; Body Weight; Breast Feeding; Childbirth & labor; Cohort Studies; Delivery, Obstetric; Diabetes Mellitus - epidemiology; Diabetes, Gestational - epidemiology; Diabetes, Gestational - physiopathology; Diseases of mother, fetus and pregnancy; Female; Gestational diabetes; Glucose; Glucose Tolerance Test; Gynecology. Andrology. Obstetrics; Humans; Infant, Newborn; Longitudinal Studies; Medical sciences; Multivariate Analysis; Nova Scotia - epidemiology; Pregnancy; Pregnancy. Fetus. Placenta; Recurrence; Regression Analysis; Research design; Retrospective Studies; Risk Factors; Smoking; Womens health; Nova Scotia; Canada; Nova Scotia Canada; Endocrinopathy; Human; Recurrence; Pregnancy disorders; Diabetes mellitus; Body weight; Epidemiology; Macrosomia; Pregnancy; Fetal diseases; Mother; Malformation; Cohort study; Risk factor; Adult; Female
• ISSN: 0149-5992; 1935-5548
• DOI: 10.2337/diacare.24.4.659

Rates and Risk Factors for Recurrence of Gestational Diabetes Stephanie MacNeill , MSC 1 , Linda Dodds , PHD 2 3 , David C. Hamilton , PHD 1 , B. Anthony Armson , MD, FRCS (C) 2 and M. VandenHof , MD, FRCS (C) 2 1 Mathematics and Statistics 2 Obstetrics and Gynecology, and 3 Pediatrics, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada Abstract OBJECTIVE —To determine the recurrence rate of gestational diabetes (GDM) during a subsequent pregnancy among women who had GDM during an index pregnancy and to identify factors associated with the probability of recurrence. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS —A retrospective longitudinal study was performed in Nova Scotia, Canada, of women who were diagnosed as having GDM during a pregnancy between the years of 1980 and 1996 and who had at least one subsequent pregnancy during this time period. When only the index and first subsequent pregnancy were analyzed, the cohort included 651 women. The recurrence rate of GDM in the pregnancy after the pregnancy with the initial diagnosis of GDM was determined. Multivariate regression models were constructed to model the recurrence of GDM in a subsequent pregnancy as functions of potential predictors to estimate RRs and CIs. RESULTS —The rate of recurrence of GDM in the pregnancy subsequent to the index pregnancy was found to be 35.6% (95% CI = 31.9–39.3%). Multivariate regression models showed that infant birth weight in the index pregnancy and maternal prepregnancy weight before the subsequent pregnancy were predictive of recurrent GDM. CONCLUSIONS —In this large cohort of women, slightly more than one-third of the subjects had diabetes in a subsequent pregnancy, which is consistent with recurrence rates in other predominately white populations. Strategies to reduce the occurrence of neonatal macrosomia and maternal prepregnancy obesity may help lower the rate of recurrence of GDM. GDM, gestational diabetes NSAPD, Nova Scotia Atlee Perinatal Database Footnotes Address correspondence and reprint requests to Linda Dodds, PhD, Perinatal Epidemiology Research Unit, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Dalhousie University, 5980 University Ave., Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada B3H 4N1. E-mail: dodds{at}is.dal.ca . Received for publication 26 September 2000 and accepted in revised form 13 December 2000. A table elsewhere in this issue shows conventional and Système International (SI) units and conversion factors for many substances.