Long-term risk of overweight in offspring of Chinese women with gestational diabetes defined by IADPSG's but not by WHO's criteria

Aims

To examine long-term risk of overweight in offspring of women with gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) defined by the International Association of Diabetes and Pregnancy Study Group (IADPSG)'s criteria but not by the 1999 World Health Organization (WHO)'s criteria.

Methods

We followed up 1681 mother-child pairs for 8 years in Tianjin, China. Overweight in children aged 1–5 and 6–8 were respectively defined as body mass index-for-age and -sex above the 2 z-score and 1 z-score curves of the WHO’s child growth standards. Logistic regression was performed to obtain odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) of hyperglycemia indices at oral glucose tolerance test and GDMs defined by different criteria for offspring overweight at different ages.

Results

Offspring of women with fasting plasma glucose ≥5.1 mmol/L were at increased risk of overweight at 6–8 years old (OR:1.45, 95% CI: 1.09–1.93). GDM defined by the IADPSG’s criteria only was associated with increased risk of childhood overweight at 6–8 years old (1.65, 1.13–2.40), as compared with non-GDM by either of the two sets of criteria.

Conclusions

Newly defined GDM by the IADPSG’s criteria increased the risk of offspring overweight aged 6–8 years.