Researchers quantify the risk for diabetes after gestational diabetes

Gestational diabetes is associated with an increased risk for subsequent diabetes, with higher risk for gestational diabetes in second pregnancy and in both first and second pregnancies, according to a study published online May 9 in JAMA Network Open.

Joseph Mussa, from McGill University in Montreal, and colleagues compared the hazards of incident diabetes among those with gestational diabetes in the first, second, and both pregnancies compared to women without gestational diabetes in a retrospective cohort study.

Data were included from 431,980 women with two singleton deliveries; 2.5, 3.7, and 1.9 percent had gestational diabetes in their first pregnancy, their second pregnancy, and both pregnancies, respectively.

The researchers 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 percent and 3.63-fold with second pregnancy-only gestational diabetes and gestational diabetes in both pregnancies, respectively.

“Our results provide a personalized medicine-oriented pathway to diabetes risk estimation in women,” the authors write. “This should be coupled with tailored prevention programs and equitable referral pathways to reduce the burden of type 2 diabetes and its complications.”

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