Preeclampsia: A risk factor for gestational diabetes mellitus in subsequent pregnancy

Preeclampsia and gestational diabetes (GDM) have several mechanisms in common. The aim of this study was to determine whether women with preeclampsia have an increased risk of GDM in a subsequent pregnancy. Study data were collected from the Korea National Health Insurance Claims Database of the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service for 2007-2012. Patients who had their first delivery in 2007 and a subsequent delivery between 2008 and 2012 in Korea were enrolled. A model of multivariate logistic regression analysis was performed with GDM as the final outcome to evaluate the risk of GDM in the second pregnancy. Among the 252,276 women who had their first delivery in 2007, 150,794 women had their second delivery between 2008 and 2012. On the multivariate regression analysis, women with preeclampsia alone in the first pregnancy had an increased risk of GDM in the second pregnancy when compared with women who had neither of these conditions in their first pregnancy (OR 1.2, 95% CI, 1.1-1.3). Women with GDM alone in the first pregnancy were at an increased risk for GDM in the second pregnancy (OR 3.3, 95% CI 3.1-3.4). The co-presence of preeclampsia and GDM in the first pregnancy further increased the risk of GDM in the second pregnancy (OR 5.9, 95% CI, 4.0-8.6). Our study showed that a history of preeclampsia may serve as an additional risk factor for GDM in a subsequent pregnancy.