Wednesday 6 August 2008

Women With Gestational Diabetes At Risk Of Type 2 Diabetes

�Women with gestational diabetes are at greater peril of developing type 2 diabetes, with almost 20% of women developing the condition within 9 years of gestation, found a large, population-based study of 659,000 women published in CMAJ.





The study, hypertext transfer protocol://www.cmaj.ca/press/pg229.pdf, conducted by a group of researchers from the University of Toronto, Mount Sinai Hospital and the Institute for Clinical and Evaluative Sciences, looked at 21,823 women diagnosed with gestational diabetes and examined follow up records up to 9 years. They institute the rate of diabetes increased apace in the first 9 months after delivery, peaking at 9 years.





"In this large, population-based study, we found that diabetes highly-developed within 9 years afterwards the index pregnancy in 18.9% of women with previous gestational diabetes; this rate was a great deal higher than the rate among women without gestational diabetes (2%)," state Dr. Denice Feig and coauthors.





As well, they note that the rate of gestational diabetes in Ontario, the study state, seems to be increasing and is linked to older mothers. Living in low-income neighbourhoods and in urban areas were likewise risk factors for gestational diabetes. Higher urban statistics "may reverberate the enceinte numbers of South and East Asian and black populations living in urban areas, wHO have a higher risk of infection of type 2 diabetes," postulate Dr. Feig and colleagues.





"The main strength of our report lies in the fact that it was a large population-based study involving more than 21,000 women with gestational diabetes, with up to 9 years of follow-up," state the researchers. "Unlike other studies, it covered a large, chiseled geographic realm with a population of 13 zillion, which allowed us to make a more racy assessment of the peril of type 2 diabetes after gestational diabetes than has been possible in previous studies."





However, the subject field could non "assess the effect of ethnicity, obesity and stage of fasting glucose during pregnancy, risk factors that are clearly associated with the development of diabetes."





"These women english hawthorn benefit from both preventive interventions and regular screening," conclude the researchers wHO point extinct that physicians and insurance makers demand to direction and screen these women accordingly.





In a related commentary, Dr. David Simmons of Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation in the UK comments that many women with gestational diabetes become pregnant once more, leading to potential risks for the fetus. "Type 2 diabetes in pregnancy, particularly if previously undiagnosed, is associated with poor outcomes, including an increased incidence of fetal loss, malformation and perinatal death." He argues for more investment in prevention and screening programs for at-risk women to protect women and their future children.









Source: Melissa McDermott



Canadian Medical Association Journal




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