Diabetes risk perception in women with recent gestational diabetes: delivery to the postpartum visit

Abstract

Objective: Low perceived risk for type 2 diabetes (T2DM) may be a barrier to lifestyle change in women with recent gestational diabetes (GDM). We assessed perceived risk for T2DM at delivery and postpartum.

Methods: We used a validated diabetes risk perception instrument to survey women with GDM at delivery and postpartum. We compared women with low perceived risk for T2DM at delivery to those with high perceived risk.

Results: The majority (N = 43 of 70, 61%) perceived high risk at delivery. Women who perceived low risk were younger (30.7 ± 6.3 versus 35.0 ± 4.5 years, p = 0.003) than women who perceived high risk. Although knowledge of risk factors for T2DM was poor (mean 6.0 ± 1.9, of 11 points), 95% correctly identified GDM as a risk factor. Perceived risk was maintained in most (N = 51 of 58, 88%) who returned for their postpartum visit. Low perceived risk was not associated with loss to follow up, however correct identification of GDM as a risk factor was protective (OR 0.05, 95% CI 0.005, 0.56).

Conclusions: Risk perception is accurate in most women with GDM at delivery and postpartum. Further study is needed to translate perceived risk into preventive behaviors in women with recent GDM.

• Diabetes prevention
• gestational diabetes
• pregnancy

Acknowledgements

We thank the TEAM GDM participants without whom this study would not be possible. We thank Abbie Marrale, BS, and Liberty Reforma, BA, for their work on the TEAM GDM study. We thank Dr. Lucinda England (Centers for Disease Control) for her careful review of the manuscript.

Declaration of Interest: The authors report no declarations of interest.

The TEAM GDM study was supported by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC MM-1094-09/09). Dr Nicklas was supported by an institutional National Research Service Award #T32AT000051 from the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) at the National Institutes of Health. Dr Seely was supported by a K24 from the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute at the National Institutes of Health (9K24HL096141).

These data were presented in part as a poster at the 12th Annual Meeting of the Diabetes in Pregnancy Study Group of North America, April 2011.