Gestational diabetes linked to obesity
A new study finds that a mother's gestational diabetes, the kind that starts in pregnancy, is significantly associated with obesity in her children at ages 5 to 7. Researchers measured glucose levels in 9,439 pregnant women using two tests for hyperglycemia, or high blood sugar, and examined their children five to seven years later. None of the women were diabetic before pregnancy. The more diabetic the pregnant mothers were, the more likely their children were to be obese. Children of mothers with elevated blood sugars who were untreated under the criteria at the time were almost twice as likely to be obese or overweight at 5 to 7 as children of mothers with normal readings. But mothers treated for hyperglycemia in pregnancy, those with the highest blood sugar, reduced their risk of having obese children to the same as the risk of mothers with initially normal blood sugar.
The large size of the study and the fact that the children were followed for five to seven years give it significant strength. But the researchers had no access to mothers' weights before pregnancy and could not know how much a mother's obesity, which is itself heritable, might have contributed to gestational diabetes. "If women develop diabetes during pregnancy, they should work with their doctors to stick with the treatment," said Teresa A. Hillier, the lead author of the study, which is in the September issue of Diabetes Care.
Science Times