THURSDAY, March 19, 2015 (HealthDay News) -- For women with gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM), baseline and most recent body mass index (BMI) and weight gain after GDM correlate with increased long-term risk of developing type 2 diabetes, according to a study published online March 18 in Diabetologia.
Wei Bao, M.D., Ph.D., from the National Institutes of Health in Rockville, Md., and colleagues examined how adiposity and weight change influence the long-term risk of developing type 2 diabetes after GDM. Data were included for 1,695 women with incident GDM between 1991 and 2001.
During 18 years of follow-up, the researchers identified 259 incident cases of type 2 diabetes. For each 1 kg/m² increase in BMI, the adjusted hazard ratio for type 2 diabetes was 1.16 for baseline BMI and 1.16 for most recent BMI. Each 5 kg increment of weight gain after GDM development correlated with an increased risk of type 2 diabetes (adjusted hazard ratio, 1.27). Compared with women who had a BMI of <25 kg/m² and gained <5 kg after GDM, women with a BMI of ≥30 kg/m² at baseline and who gained ≥5 kg after GDM had an adjusted hazard ratio of 43.19 for type 2 diabetes.
"Baseline BMI, most recent BMI, and weight gain after GDM were significantly and positively associated with risk of progression from GDM to type 2 diabetes," the authors write.
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