Risk for Prediabetes, Diabetes Increased for Those Delivering Large Infants

FRIDAY, Feb. 17, 2023 (HealthDay News) — Having a large-for-gestational-age (LGA) infant is associated with an increased risk for being diagnosed with prediabetes or diabetes 10 to 14 years postpartum, according to a study presented at The Pregnancy Meeting, the annual meeting of the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine, held from Feb. 6 to 11 in San Francisco.

Kartik Kailas Venkatesh, M.D., Ph.D., from The Ohio State University in Columbus, and colleagues examined the association of having had an LGA birth with developing prediabetes and diabetes 10 to 14 years postpartum among those without gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM).

Of the 4,025 individuals without GDM, 13.2, 7.8, and 78.9 percent had a LGA infant, a small-for-gestational-age (SGA) infant, and an appropriate-for-gestational-age (AGA) infant, respectively. By 10 to 14 years after delivery, 20.0 percent were diagnosed with prediabetes or diabetes. The researchers found that individuals who had an LGA birth had a higher frequency of prediabetes or diabetes, while frequency was lower for those who had an SGA birth compared with those who had an AGA birth (24.8 and 15.4 percent, respectively, versus 19.7 percent). In multivariable analyses, the risk for having prediabetes or diabetes was significantly increased for those with LGA birth (adjusted risk ratio, 1.21), while SGA birth was not associated with outcome.

“The real implication of this research is that we need to stop thinking of pregnancy care as episodic care by making these connections between pregnancy and long-term health outcomes in mothers and children in order to see the bigger picture,” Venkatesh said in a statement.