Percentage of women with gestational diabetes who presented risk factors for its development, in a public hospital in the City of Córdoba, Argentina, in the period 2020-2023

Abstract

Gestational diabetes (GD) is impaired glucose tolerance of variable severity that begins or is first recognized during pregnancy. Its prevalence is increased by increased risk factors such as maternal obesity, age ≥ 30 years, chronic arterial hypertension (AHT), history of first-degree family diabetes, macrosomia, peri-natal mortality in previous pregnancies, previous GD. Objectives: General: to determine what percentage of women who developed GD presented risk factors and to know the frequency of presentation of each risk factor.

Descriptive, retrospective, cross-sectional study. Medical records of postpartum women > 18 years old, between 2020 and 2023, at the Misericordia Hospital were selected. Selected risk factors: maternal obesity, age ≥ 30 years, chronic arterial hypertension (AHT), history of first-degree family diabetes, macrosomia, peri-natal mortality in previous pregnancies, previous GD.

Sixty-three women with a diagnosis of GD were included, mean age 31.2 ± 6 years. Ninety percent presented risk factors, the most frequent was obesity (39%), followed by age ≥30 years and family history of diabetes. Patients with previous GD were low (4.7%), being surpassed by hypertension (44%), pre natal mortality (19%) and fetal macrosomia (11.1%).

This study demonstrated the high percentage of women with GD who presented risk factors, probably because excess weight increases insulin resistance and obesity is such a prevalent risk factor. The frequency of women >30 years of age was high, this factor would also seem to play an important role in the development of GD. Identifying pregnant women with the presence of risk factors for GD requires the implementation of actions aimed at diagnosing, treating and preventing maternal and fetal morbimortality in the short, medium and long term.