Risk Factors for gestational diabetes mellitus: a case control study

Background: The underlying causes of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) are important because they are effective to diagnosis and prevention from this condition. The aim of this study was to identify the risk factors for GDM and the possible etiological agents. Materials and Methods: This case-control study was conducted with 100 women with GDM and 100 healthy pregnant women at a tertiary care hospital, related of Babol University. GDM was identified by impaired oral glucose tolerance test based on the Carpenter and Coustan criteria. Healthy women were randomly selected from the prenatal healthcare clinic of the same center and were matched to gestational age of 24-28 weeks. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used for data analysis via the SPSS software.Results: After adjusting variables, multivariate analysis identified four significant risk factors of GDM including pre-pregnancy low physical activity (OR=2.85, 95% CI= 0.97- 8.34), advanced maternal age (OR=1.24, 95% CI= 1.13- 1.35), body mass index≥ 30 (OR=1.10, 95% CI= 1.02- 1.20) and family history of diabetes mellitus (OR=5.62, 95% CI= 2.26- 13.96). Conclusion: We observed significant associations between low pre-pregnancy physical activity and obesity with GDM risk so the finding of this study can help devise strategies for the prevention of GDM.

Keywords:

Gestational diabetes mellitus , Physical activity , Body mass index , Risk factors