In a study published in the journal Obstetrics & Gynecology, U.S researchers have pointed out that excessive weight gain early in pregnancy, especially in the first trimester, could raise the risk of developing gestational diabetes later during pregnancy.
Excess weight gain was found to increase the risk of gestational diabetes by about 50% in women who participated in the study, which is among the first to link weight gain early in pregnancy to gestational diabetes. Conducted by the research arm of the California-based care group Kaiser Permanente, this multi-ethnic study recruited 345 case patients with gestational diabetes and 800 control subjects delivering between 1996 and 1998, whose weight gain was measured in the first trimester and who were screened for gestational diabetes at 24 to 28 weeks of gestation.
After adjusting for well-known risk factors for gestational diabetes, including obesity and older age, women who gained the most weight prior to diabetes screening were 50% more likely to develop gestational diabetes than women who gained the least weight or weight in accordance with guidelines published by health policy group the Institute of Medicine (IOM).
“Health-care providers should talk to their patients early in their pregnancy about the appropriate gestational weight gain, especially during the first trimester, and help women monitor their weight gain. Our research shows that weight gain in early pregnancy is a modifiable risk factor for gestational diabetes,” lead author Monique Hedderson, a scientist at the Kaiser Permanente Division of Research in California, said in a Kaiser news release.
Written by Snigdha taduri for Biomed-ME