The Incidence Rate of Gestational Diabetes and Relevant Factors on Pregnant Women in the City of Shahroud in 2014

The pregnant women suffering from gestational diabetes seem to face higher risks of pregnancy complications in spite of improvements in pregnancy outcomes during recent years. This study designed to define the incidence rate of gestational diabetes associated with its risk factors. This was a longitudinal study, in which, we studied the pregnant women referred to 11 different urban health care centers in the city of Shahrud (Northeast of Iran) since April to September of 2014. Out of 1300 women with available medical care records, we studied 1098 pregnant women in the mentioned timespan. According to the results of fasting blood sugar (FBS) test, 7 mothers were diagnosed with diabetes at the beginning of the study. Using 75gr glucose, we conducted a 2-hour oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) for all non-diabetic pregnant women (normal and pre-diabetic ones-1091 subjects) between the weeks 24 and 28 to screen the presence of gestational diabetes. The diagnosis of gestational diabetes was considered definite if one of the following criteria was met: Fasting blood sugar ≥92 mg/dl, 1-hour glucose ≥180 mg/dl or 2-hours glucose ≥153 mg/dl. We used the Log-binomial regression model to estimate the rate of diabetes incidence based on risk factors. The mean age of subjects was equal to 28.0 (SD=5.1) years. The rate of gestational diabetes occurrence was 7.8% (95% CI: 6.3-9.6 (Cases=85 pregnant women). In case of subject over 35 (RR=2.9), the factors of positive family history of diabetes (RR=1.8) and pre-diabetic condition (RR=1.6) increased the risk of gestational diabetes. The factors of BMI, smoking, education, and the pregnancy frequency were not considered in the model. The incidence rate of diabetes in our population was higher compared to previous studies. However, due to variations made in the gestational diabetes screening guidelines, more studies are needed to do comparative research.