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Study: One in 16 pregnant women has gestational diabetes
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Between 1997 and 2007, hospitalizations for pregnant women with gestational diabetes increased 75% and rose 72% for women with complications arising from pre-existing diabetes, according to a report from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.
The report also revealed that diabetes-related hospitalizations accounted for approximately 6.5% of all 307,400 maternal stays in 2008. Gestational diabetes accounted for 5.4% and complications of pre-existing diabetes accounted for 1.1%.
About 64% of women who had pre-existing diabetes that complicated their pregnancy underwent cesarean section surgery. This number was more than twice as high as the 31.7% of women without diabetes who also had a cesarean delivery. At 45.6%, women with gestational diabetes were also more likely to deliver in this manner.
Results also showed that costs were higher for pregnant women with gestational and pre-existing diabetes. At $5,900, a hospital stay for a pregnant woman with pre-existing diabetes was 55% more expensive than the $3,800 for a woman without diabetes. Similarly, a hospital stay for women with gestational diabetes cost 18% more ($4,500) than for women without gestational diabetes. In total, diabetes-related hospitalizations for pregnant women cost $1.4 million, representing 7.8% of all maternal hospitalization costs in 2008.
On average, hospital stays were also longer for pregnant women with pre-existing diabetes (4.2 days) and gestational diabetes (3.2 days) compared with those without diabetes (2.6 days).
For women who delivered during their hospital stay, 43% with pre-existing diabetes billed Medicaid; 49% of women without diabetes billed private insurance. Similarly, 36% of women with gestational diabetes billed Medicaid compared with 57% of women without the disease who billed private insurance.
For more information:
- Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Hospitalizations related to diabetes in pregnancy, 2008. http://www.hcup-us.ahrq.gov/reports/statbriefs/sb102.pdf. Accessed December 22, 2010.
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