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Small size at birth and later diabetic pregnancy
1Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences, Temple University School of Medicine, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. colemanplant@erols.com
Objective:
To determine whether small size at birth was associated with an increased risk of diabetes in pregnancy.
Methods:
Linked birth cohorts were evaluated: that of women born at 37-44 weeks' gestation in 1974, and that of their offspring born 1995-1996, at which time birth certificate data included a checkbox for maternal diabetes. The risk for diabetes was calculated for both a small for gestational age (SGA) group, defined as less than the tenth percentile for gestational age, and an appropriate for gestational age (AGA) group.
Results:
The relative risk for diabetes in pregnancy among the group that had been small at birth was 3.6 compared with the larger group. This was significant at the P < .001 level.
Conclusion:
A woman's risk of diabetes during pregnancy is increased if she herself was small at birth.