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Gestational diabetes risk decreased with healthy eating intervention
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Less gestational weight gain and lower fasting glucose were found with a healthy eating intervention, according to recent study findings published in Diabetes Care.
David Simmons, MD, FRACP, of the University of Western Sydney in Australia, and colleagues evaluated 150 women aged at least 18 years — before 20 weeks’ gestation with a prepregnancy BMI of at least 29 kg/m2 — to determine the effect of healthy eating, physical activity or a combination of both on the risk for gestational diabetes. Participants were randomly assigned to one of three interventions.
David Simmons
From baseline to 35 to 37 weeks’ gestation, women gained an average of 8.6 kg with only 20% reaching the targets of less than 5 kg gestational weight gain from baseline among all groups. Less weight gain by 24 to 28 weeks’ gestation and 35 to 37 weeks’ gestation was associated with healthy eating alone compared with physical activity alone, whereas no significant differences were found between the combination group and healthy eating and physical activity alone.
At baseline and by 24 to 28 weeks’ gestation, no significant differences were found between the three groups for glucose, insulin or leptin measurements. A significantly lower fasting glucose and 2-hour insulin concentration were found among the healthy eating alone group by 35 to 37 weeks’ gestation. No significant differences were found between the combination group or healthy eating and physical activity alone.
Of 130 participants at 24 to 28 weeks’ gestation, 19% developed gestational diabetes, which increased to 32% of 112 participants by 35 to 37 weeks’ gestation.
“Clinicians should provide the simple healthy eating messages listed in the paper to all women who become pregnant — women also need support, but this would be a good start,” Simmons told Endocrine Today. – by Amber Cox
Disclosure: Simmons report no relevant financial disclosures. The study was funded by a European Union FP7 grant. Please see the full study for a list of all other authors’ relevant financial disclosures.
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