| Today's Date: Friday, November 21, 2008 |
| Women With Gestational Diabetes At Risk Of Type 2 Diabetes |
| Monday, August 25, 2008 |
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Women with gestational diabetes are at greater risk of developing type 2 diabetes, with almost 20 percent of women developing the condition within nine years of pregnancy, found a study of 659,000 women. The study, 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 nine years. They found the rate of diabetes increased rapidly in the first nine months after delivery, peaking at nine years. "In this large, population-based study, we found that diabetes developed within nine years after the index pregnancy in 18.9 percent of women with previous gestational diabetes; this rate was much higher than the rate among women without gestational diabetes, 2 percent," stated Dr. Denice Feig and co-authors. As well, they note that the rate of gestational diabetes in Ontario, the study province, seems to be increasing and is linked to older mothers. Living in low-income neighborhoods and in urban areas were also risk factors for gestational diabetes. Higher urban statistics "may reflect the large numbers of South and East Asian and black populations living in urban areas, who have a higher risk of type 2 diabetes," said Feig and colleagues. "The main strength of our study lies in the fact that it was a large population-based study involving more than 21,000 women with gestational diabetes, with up to nine years of follow-up," the researchers said. "Unlike other studies, it covered a large, well-defined geographic region with a population of 13 million, which allowed us to make a more robust assessment of the risk of type 2 diabetes after gestational diabetes than has been possible in previous studies." However, the study could not "assess the effect of ethnicity, obesity and level of fasting glucose during pregnancy, risk factors that are clearly associated with the development of diabetes." "These women may benefit from both preventative interventions and regular screening," concluded the researchers who pointed out that physicians and policy makers need to counsel and screen these women accordingly. The study was published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, more information can be found by visiting: www.cma.ca/cmaj. |
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