Diabetes risk higher among women affected by gestational diabetes, study reports

Women living with, or who have been affected by, gestational diabetes are more at risk of developing subsequent diabetes, latest research has suggested.

Scientists from McGill University in Montreal have analysed the health outcomes of 431,980 women, all of whom had two pregnancies.

The researchers were comparing the hazards of incident diabetes among those with gestational diabetes in the first, second, and both pregnancies compared to women without gestational diabetes.

They found that the risk for incident diabetes was increased 4.35-, 7.68-, and 15.8-fold with first pregnancy-only gestational diabetes, second pregnancy-only gestational diabetes, and gestational diabetes in both pregnancies, respectively.

Compared with first pregnancy-only gestational diabetes, the hazard was increased 76 per cent and 3.63-fold with second pregnancy-only gestational diabetes and gestational diabetes in both pregnancies, respectively.

The authors said: “Our results provide a personalised medicine-oriented pathway to diabetes risk estimation in women.

“This should be coupled with tailored prevention programmes and equitable referral pathways to reduce the burden of type 2 diabetes and its complications.”

The study is now available in JAMA Network Open.

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