Changes in the clinical characteristics of women with gestational diabetes mellitus - a retrospective decade-long single center analysis.
AIMS
Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is an emerging worldwide problem. Changes in clinical characteristics of women affected by GDM in a long-term perspective are still not properly investigated. We aimed to examine such changes over a decade in a retrospective single-center analysis.


METHODS
The medical documentation from Department of Metabolic Diseases, Krakow, Poland was analyzed. We included 633 women consecutively diagnosed with GDM in one of three time intervals: 2007-2008 (N = 157), 2012-2013 (N = 272), 2016-2017 (N = 234). Statistical analyses were performed.


RESULTS
Comparison of the three groups identified differences in the mean age of women at the GDM diagnosis (30.7 ± 5.0 years vs. 31.2 ± 4.7 vs. 32.5 ± 4.7, respectively, starting from the earliest 2007-2008 group), pregnancy week at GDM diagnosis (28.0 ± 5.3 wks. vs. 25.9 ± 4.9 vs. 23.4 ± 6.8), the proportion of women diagnosed before the 24th week of pregnancy (12.8% vs. 16.5% vs. 31.3%), and gestational weight gain (12.4 ± 5.0 kg vs. 10.4 ± 5.2 vs. 10.0 ± 5.7); (p = 0.001 or less for all comparisons). We also found differences for glucose values on fasting and at 2 hours with the highest (0 min) and lowest level (120 min) in the 2016-2017, respectively. Finally, a borderline difference for the weight, but not for BMI, was found (64.1 ± 14.1 kg vs. 66.2 ± 13.1 vs. 67.8 ± 15.6; p = 0.04). Differences were also identified in the post hoc analysis between cohorts.


CONCLUSION
This retrospective analysis illustrates changes in characteristics of women with GDM occurring over the period of decade in Poland. They likely result from both epidemiological trends and modifications of the WHO criteria for the GDM diagnosis.
['Wilk|Magdalena|M|', 'Cyganek|Katarzyna|K|', 'Matejko|Bartłomiej|B|', 'Krzyżowska|Sabina|S|', 'Lasoń|Izabela|I|', 'Katra|Barbara|B|', 'Zięba-Parkitny|Joanna|J|', 'Witek|Przemysław|P|', 'Małecki|Maciej T|MT|']
D000328:Adult D001786:Blood Glucose D016640:Diabetes, Gestational D005215:Fasting D005260:Female D006801:Humans D011044:Poland D011247:Pregnancy D012189:Retrospective Studies
gestational diabetes mellitus diabetes mellitus diabetes GDM hyperglycemia