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Introduction: Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is a risk factor for developing type 2diabetes mellitus (T2DM). However, compliance to postpartum follow-up remains low.The new outcome-based International Association of Diabetes and Pregnancy StudyGroups (IADPSG)-criteria have led to a worldwide increase of GDM prevalence. Thepotential impact of the new IADPSG-critera on the frequency of T2DM/prediabetesdiagnosis, during follow-up of prior GDM-women in Örebro County, has not yet beenstudied. Aim: To investigate whether there is a difference in prevalence of prediabetes/T2DM inGDM-women two years postpartum, based on older GDM-criteria vs. the new lower IADPSG2010/WHO 2013-criteria, and to describe compliance to follow-up in primary health care(PHC). Methods: A retrospective cohort study of 108 GDM-women in Örebro County. Data obtainedfrom medical records: cardiometabolic risk factors, compliance data, outcomes withnormoglycemia used as comparison at follow-up. Results: T2DM and prediabetes were non-statistically significant higher in the old criteriagroup[11 (28.9%) vs. 6 (18.2%), p=0.289] and [12 (30.8%) vs. 5 (15.6%), p=0.137],respectively. Compliance to both 1st and 2nd follow-up was seen in 81 (75%) women. 96(88.9%) to first and 88 (81.5%) to second follow-up. An increase in mean BMI was seen frombaseline to PHC (31 vs. 31.7, p=0.014) as well as an increase in alcohol consumption [4(6.6%) vs. 23 (37.7%), p<0.001]. Conclusions: GDM-diagnosis based on IADPSG-criteria did not show any statisticallysignificant difference in the prevalence of T2DM/prediabetes two years postpartum, whencompared to GDM-diagnosis based on old criteria. Moderate compliance to postpartumfollow-up was observed, with an increased number of dropouts. More research is needed inthis area, following implication of IADPSG-criteria.

<p dir="ltr">Gestational Diabetes Mellitus (GDM) is defined as glucose intolerance with first onset during pregnancy in women without previous history of diabetes. The global prevalence of GDM oscillates between 2% and 17%, varying across countries and ethnicities. In the United States (U.S.), every year up to 13% of pregnancies are affected by this disease. Several risk factors for GDM are well established, such as race, age and BMI, while additional factors have been proposed that could affect the risk of developing the disease; some of them are modifiable, such as diet, while others are not, such as environmental factors.</p><p dir="ltr">Taking effective preventive actions against GDM require the early identification of women at highest risk. A crucial task to this end is the establishment of factors that increase the probabilities of developing the disease. These factors are both individual characteristics and choices and likely include environmental conditions.</p><p dir="ltr">The first part of the dissertation focuses on examining the relationship between food insecurity and GDM by using the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), which has a representative sample of the U.S. population. The aim of this analysis is to determine a national estimate of the impact of food environment on the likelihood of developing GDM stratified by race and ethnicity. A survey weighted logistic regression model is used to assess these relationships which are described using odds ratios.</p><p dir="ltr">The goal of the second part of this research is to determine whether a woman’s risk of developing GDM is affected by her environment, also referred to in this work as level 2 variables. For that purpose, Medicaid claims information from Indiana was analyzed using a multilevel logistic regression model with sample balancing to improve the class imbalance ratio.</p><p dir="ltr">Finally, for the third part of this dissertation, a simulation study was performed to examine the impact of balancing on the prediction quality and inference of model parameters when using multilevel logistic regression models. Data structure and generating model for the data were informed by the findings from the second project using the Medicaid data. This is particularly relevant for medical data that contains measurements at the individual level combined with other data sources measured at the regional level and both prediction and model interpretation are of interest.</p>

University of Bradford through the International Development Fund / The full text will be available at the end of the embargo: 21st June 2025

Background: Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is currently the most common medical complication in pregnancy, affecting approximately 13 % of all pregnant women. Although long-term effects on the offspring are still unclear, previous studies indicate ventricular myocardial changes. Objectives: The aim of our study was to investigate whether early biomarkers such as QT interval variability (QTV) are sensitive enough to predict these structural changes in children of GDM mothers. Methods: We focused on children of GDM mothers. Healthy children of mothers without GDM served as controls. All of them were examined at the German Heart Center, Munich, Germany. Heart rate variability (HRV) and QTV measures were extracted from 10 to 15 min Einthoven II electrocardiograms, split into 5 min windows, to characterize the effects of possible autonomic nervous system alterations and cellular ventricular mutations. Results: 75 children were included in this prospective observational case-control study; 42 of them were children of GDM mothers. The median age at the examination was 12 months (11–13 months). We found decreased QTV as a measure of ventricular repolarization variability in one-year-olds of GDM mothers compared to healthy controls (p < 0.05). Conclusion: We have found increased very low frequency HRV in females and decreased QTV in male children of GDM mothers, which suggests diverse responses and could reflect increased sympathetic tone and altered ventricular myocardium at a cellular level, respectively. Further work is required to understand the long-term significance of these findings in terms of providing an easy-to-use and cost-effective technology for early diagnosis of myocardial damage.

Résumé : Le diabète gestationnel (DG), qui peut entraîner des conséquences importantes pour la mère et l’enfant, résulte d’un défaut de compensation de la sécrétion d’insuline par rapport à la résistance à l’insuline. Comme la grossesse représente en elle-même un modèle d’augmentation physiologique de la résistance à l’insuline, il est intéressant d’étudier et de caractériser les facteurs qui sont impliqués dans la résistance à l’insuline et, ultimement, dans le DG, chez la femme enceinte. Le Tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNFα) est soupçonné d’être un de ces facteurs, suite aux études effectuées chez les animaux et les populations humaines non enceintes, mais les résultats obtenus en grossesse sont encore controversés. Nous avons émis l’hypothèse que les niveaux circulants de TNFα sont associés au DG et à la résistance à l’insuline dans une large cohorte de femmes enceintes. Nous avons aussi investigué les variations des niveaux de TNFα en réponse à l’hyperglycémie provoquée par voie orale (HGPO) chez des femmes enceintes. Nous avons montré que de hauts niveaux de TNFα étaient liés à une résistance à l’insuline augmentée au 2e trimestre de la grossesse et ce, indépendamment de l’âge, de l’adiposité, de l’âge gestationnel, des triglycérides et des niveaux circulants d’adiponectine dans notre cohorte. De plus, les niveaux de TNFα varient différemment au cours de l’HGPO selon le statut de résistance à l’insuline. En effet, les niveaux de TNFα augmentent à 1h puis diminuent à 2h chez les femmes les plus sensibles à l’insuline, alors qu’ils diminuent tout au long du test chez les femmes les plus résistantes à l’insuline, mais restent en tout temps supérieurs aux niveaux mesurés chez les femmes les plus sensibles à l’insuline. Toutefois, les niveaux de TNFα n’étaient pas différents entre les femmes avec DG et celles normoglycémiques. De façon intéressante, la variation du TNFα pendant l’HGPO chez les femmes DG est similaire à celle chez les femmes avec haute résistance à l’insuline. Ces résultats suggèrent donc que le TNFα est indépendamment associé à la résistance à l’insuline en grossesse et que les voies inflammatoires peuvent contribuer aux dysfonctions glycémiques retrouvées en DG. // Abstract : Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM), which can exert important impacts on mothers and offspring, results from an imbalance between insulin secretion capacity and insulin resistance. Pregnancy is a state of physiologically increased insulin resistance, providing a unique model to study and characterize biological factors linked to insulin resistance in humans and, ultimately, GDM, in pregnant women. Based on animal studies and analyses in non-pregnant populations, tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNFα) is suspected of being involved in insulin resistance, but results obtained from pregnant populations are still controversial. Our hypothesis was that circulating TNFα would be associated with GDM and insulin resistance in a large cohort of pregnant women. We also investigated dynamic variations of TNFα levels over the course of an oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) in pregnant women. We showed that higher TNFα levels were associated with higher insulin resistance at 2nd trimester of pregnancy, independent of age, adiposity, gestational age, triglycerides and adiponectin levels in our cohort. Furthermore, TNFα levels varied differently over the course of the OGTT according to insulin resistance status: they rose at 1h and then decreased at 2h in insulin sensitive women, whereas they consistently decreased in insulin resistant women over the course of the test (even though they remained statistically higher than insulin sensitive women’s levels at each time point throughout the OGTT). However, TNFα levels were not different between GDM and non-GDM women. Interestingly, variation of TNFα levels over the course of the OGTT in GDM women followed the same pattern as the variation observed in OGTT in women classified with high insulin resistance. Those results suggest that circulating TNFα is independently associated with insulin resistance in pregnancy and that inflammatory pathways might contribute to glycemic dysregulation observed in GDM.

<p>Obesity is a major health problem in the Western world. Mean birth weight has increased during the last 25 years. One explanation is that the proportion of large for gestational age (LGA) infants has increased. Such infants risk developing obesity, cardiovascular disease and diabetes later in life. Despite the risk of neonatal hypoglycemia, their postnatal metabolic adaptation has not been investigated. Our data, obtained with stable isotope labeled compounds, demonstrate that newborn LGA infants have increased lipolysis and decreased insulin sensitivity. After administration of glucagon, the plasma levels of glucose and the rate of glucose production increased. The simultaneous increase in insulin correlated with the decrease in lipolysis, indicating an antilipolytic effect of insulin in these infants.</p><p>We also demonstrated an intergenerational effect of being born LGA, since women born LGA, were at higher risk of giving birth to LGA infants than women not born LGA. Further, the LGA infants formed three subgroups: born long only, born heavy only, and born both long and heavy. Infants born LGA of women with high birth weight or adult obesity were at higher risk of being LGA concerning weight alone, predisposing to overweight and obesity at childbearing age. In addition we found that pregnant women with gestational diabetes were at increased risk of giving birth to infants that were heavy alone. This could explain the risk of both perinatal complications and later metabolic disease in infants of this group of women.</p><p>To identify determinants of fetal growth, 20 pregnant women with a wide range of fetal weights were investigated at 36 weeks of gestation. Maternal fat mass was strongly associated with insulin resistance. Insulin resistance was related to glucose production, which correlated positively with fetal size. The variation in resting energy expenditure, which was closely related to fetal weight, was largely explained by BMI, insulin resistance, and glucose production. Lipolysis was not rate limiting for fetal growth in this group of women. Consequently, high maternal glucose production due to a high fat mass may result in excessive fetal growth.</p>

This study was a population-based retrospective cohort of all singleton births in British Columbia for the years 2001 to 2006. The purpose of this dissertation is to examine how social and physical environment factors influence the risk of adverse pregnancy outcomes and whether they interact with each other or with maternal characteristics to modify disease risk. The main environmental factors examined include ambient particulate air pollution (PM2.5), neighbourhood socioeconomic status (SES), neighbourhood immigrant density, neighbourhood level of post-secondary education level and the urban-rural context. Census dissemination areas (DAs) were used as the neighbourhood spatial unit. The data (N=242,472) was extracted from the BC Perinatal Data Registry (BCPDR) from Perinatal Services BC (PSBC). The main perinatal outcomes investigated include birth weight and indicators of fetal growth restriction such as small-for-gestational age (SGA), term low birth weight (tLBW), and intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR), preterm birth (PTB) and gestational age, gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) and gestational hypertension (GH). Collectively, this dissertation contributes to the perinatal epidemiological literature linking particulate air pollution and neighbourhood SES context to adverse pregnancy outcomes. Assumptions about the linear effect of PM2.5 and smoking on birth weight are challenged showing that the effects are most pronounced between low and average exposures and that the magnitude of their effect is modified by neighbourhood and individual-level characteristics. These results suggest that focusing exclusively on individual risk factors may have limited success in improving outcomes without addressing the contextual influences at the neighbourhood-level. This dissertation therefore also contributes to the public health, sociological and community-urban development literature demonstrating that context and place matters. / Graduate / 0766 / 0573 / 0768 / anderse@uvic.ca

Ziel: In der vorliegenden Studie wurden kontinuierliche Blutzuckertagesprofile über 48 h bei Schwangeren unterschiedlicher Glukosetoleranz erhoben und mit der Ernährung zu häuslichen Bedingungen verglichen. Ergebnisse: Bei den Gestationsdiabetikerinnen wurden statistisch signifikant länger Konzentrationen über 130 mg/dl gemessen als bei den gesunden Schwangeren. Keine Unterschiede ergaben sich in Bezug auf folgende Werte: Mittelwert, Zeitdauern mit Blutzuckerwerten < 50 mg/dl, >120 mg/dl, >140 mg/dl, >150 mg/dl. Periprandial wurden bei den Gestationsdiabetikerinnen und den Schwangeren mit IGT signifikant höhere Maximalwerte im Anschluss an die Mahlzeit gemessen, als bei gesunden Schwangeren. Keine Unterschiede ergaben sich hinsichtlich der Anfangswerte und der Area under the curve. In einigen Gruppen bestanden positive Korrelationen zwischen der Zufuhr von Disacchariden und Parametern der Glukosemessung, in der Gruppe der Gestationsdiabetikerinnen bestand eine signifikante negative Korrelation zwischen dem Stärkekonsum und dem Mittelwert der Glukosemessung. Nach Mahlzeiten, deren Hauptkohlenhydratquelle mit einem höheren glykämischen Index nach Jenkins attribuiert war, fiel die Glukosereaktion größer aus, als bei Mahlzeiten mit niedrigem glykämischem Index. Zusammenfassung: In dieser prospektiven Studie konnte mit Hilfe der Technik der kontinuierlichen Glukosemessung die Verbindung zwischen Blutzuckertagesprofil und Ernährungsgewohnheiten zu häuslichen- also nicht klinisch- artifiziellen- Bedingungen hergestellt werden. / Objective: In the present study continuous glucose profiles in pregnant women with various levels of glucose tolerance were evaluated and compared with their diet in domestic conditions. Results: In women with GDM significantly longer periods with glucose levels above 130 mg/dl were measured than in healthy women. No differences were assessed as to average glucose levels and periods with glucose levels < 50 mg/dl, >120 mg/dl, >140 mg/dl, >150 mg/dl. In pregnant women with gestational diabetes or impaired glucose tolerance higher maximum glucose levels after a meal were found than in healthy women. No differences were found as to glucose levels at the beginning of the meal and area under the curve. In some groups positive correlations were calculated between intake of disaccharides and the glucose measurement, in gestational diabetic women a negative correlation between intake of starch and the average of the glucose level was found. After meals in which the main carbohydrate source was attributed with a high glycemic index change of the glucose level was higher than after meals with a low glycemic index. Conclusion: In the present prospective study we established the relation between glucose profiles measured by the method of continuous glucose monitoring and dietary habits in domestic conditions in pregnant women.

Gestationdiabetes (GDM) ist eine der häufigsten Schwangerschaftserkrankungen mit einer Inzidenz von 3-10% je nach untersuchter Population. GDM ist definiert als eine erstmals in der Schwangerschaft diagnostizierte Glukosetoleranzstörung. Die kindlichen Komplikationen resultieren aus der maternalen Hyperglykämie , die zu erhöhten fetalen Blutglukosespiegeln und reaktivem fetalen Hyperinsulinismus führt. Der fetale Hyperinsulinsmus gilt als Ursache für die typische Diabetes assoziierte fetale und neonatale Morbidität, wie Makrosomie, verzögerte Lungenreife, Totgeburten, neonataler Hypoglykämie und nicht zu vergessen, einem lebenslang erhöhten Risiko für Diabetes. Die Behandlung des GDM konzentriert sich auf eine strenge Stoffwechselkontrolle zur Vermeidung von maternaler Hyperglykämie. Dies erfordert Diät und intensive Blutzuckerselbstkontrolle bei allen und zusätzliche Insulintherapie bei 30% der Schwangeren. Trotz dieser Intervention ist die Rate an neonatalen Komplikationen weiterhin erhöht. Das primäre Ziel der in der vorgelegten Habilitationsschrift zusammengefassten Studien war, zu bestimmen, in welchem Ausmaß die maternalen Glukosewerte in Schwangerschaften , die nach dem Standardmanagement behandelt wurden, prädiktiv sind für kindliche Morbidität sowohl in der frühen als auch im späteren Verlauf der Schwangerschaft. In einem zweiten Schritt wollten wir untersuchten, ob die Einbeziehung des fetalen Wachstums das Outcome verbessert und als Mittel zu antenatalen Risikoabschätzung hilfreich ist. Wir fanden eine ausgezeichnete Korrelation zwischen dem Grad der maternalen Hyperglykämie und der Morbidität in der Frühschwangerschaft. Die Höhe der Nüchternglukosewerte zum Zeitpunkt der Diagnose war der stärkste Prädiktor für kongenitale Fehlbildungen in einer großen Kohorte von 3700 Frauen. Dahingegen waren weder die diagnostischen Kriterien für GDM noch die Werte der mütterlichen Blutzuckertagesprofile prädiktiv für Morbidität in späteren Verlauf der Schwangerschaft. Entgegen der Übereinkunft, dass die Diagnose GDM mindestens zwei pathologische Werte in einem oralen Glukosetoleranztest erfordert, fanden wir bereits bei einem pathologischen Wert eine erhöhte Rate an fetalem Hyperinsulinismus, Makrosomie und neonataler Hyperglykämie. Im Gegensatz dazu war das Vorliegen einer maternalen Adipositas eng mit der Entstehung einer fetalen Makrosomie assoziiert. Wir wählten den fetalen Abdominalumfang (AU) als Mass für Makrosomie, da sich dieser als hervorragender Prädiktor für die Entstehung einer Diabetes assoziierten Maskrosomie erwiess. Zudem sahen wir eine gute Korrelation der fetalen Insulinspiegel, indirekt bestimmt über das Insulin im Fruchtwasser , und dem fetalen AU. Nach unseren Daten, schließt ein AU < 75. Perzentile das Vorliegen eines gravierenden Hyperinsulinismus aus. Basierend auf dieser Erkenntnis führten wir drei Interventionsstudien durch, bei denen die Indikation für Insulintherapie bei Schwangeren mit GDM primär nach dem fetalen AU gestellt wurde. Wir konnten zeigen, dass dieser Therapieansatz, der Insulintherapie auf Frauen mit Risiko für neonatale Morbidität , definiert als AU > 75. Perzentile , konzentriert, in einer niedrigeren Makrosomie- und Sektiorate resultiert, wenn bei Schwangerschaften mit AU > 75. Perzentile trotz maternaler Normoglykämie Insulin gegeben wird. Anderseits konnte 40% der Frauen mit Hyperglykämie eine Insulintherapie erspart werden ohne Verschlechterung des Outcomes , da der Fet während der gesamten Schwangerschaft ein normales Wachstum zeigte. Im Gegenteil, bei diesen Frauen war die Rate an Wachstumsretardierung deutlich geringer als in der Standardgruppe, in der hyperglykämische Frauen mit Insulin behandelten wurden trotz normalem oder bereits grenzwertigem fetalen Wachstum. Zusammenfassend lässt sich feststellen , das bei Schwangerschaften mit GDM die maternalen Blutzuckerwerte ein guter Prädiktor sind für Morbidität in der Frühschwangerschaft , jedoch nur begrenzt hilfreich sind, einen fetalen Hyperinsulinismus und seine Folgen hervorzusagen. Die Einbeziehung der fetalen Makrosomie als klinisches Zeichen eines möglichen Hyperinsulinismus, ermöglicht, die intensive Intervention durch Insulintherapie auf Schwangere zu konzentrieren mit erhöhten Risiko für neonatale Morbidität. / Gestational diabetes (GDM) is one of the most frequent disorders in pregnancy. The incidence ranges between 3-10% dependent on the background diabetes risk of the investigated population. GDM is defined as any glucose intolerance diagnosed first in pregnancy. The implications for the offspring result from the maternal hyperglycemia which leads to increased fetal blood glucose concentration and reactive fetal hyperinsulinism. Fetal hyperinsulinism is the cause for the diabetes associated fetal and neonatal morbidity, like macrosomia, delayed maturity of lungs and liver, stillbirth , neonatal hypoglycemia and an increased risk for diabetes in later life. Treatment of GDM focuses on tight glucose control to avoid maternal hyperglycemia. This requires diet and intensive self glucose monitoring for all women and additionally insulin therapy in 30% of the patients. Despite good glucose control the rate of neonatal morbidity is still elevated compared to pregnancies without glucose intolerance. The primary goal of the presented work was to determine to what extend maternal glycemia in GDM pregnancies treated according to the standard management predicts morbidity as well in early as well as in late pregnancy. In a second step, we investigated whether inclusion of fetal growth pattern improves the neonatal outcome and provides an additional tool for antenatal risk assessment. We found an excellent correlation between the level of maternal hyperglycemia and morbidity in early pregnancies. The fasting glucose at diagnosis of GDM was the strongest predictor for congenital anomalies in a large cohort of 3700 women with GDM. In later pregnancy, we were faced with a different situation. The data of our studies indicated that neither the current diagnostic criteria nor the maternal glucose values during therapy reliably predict neonatal morbidity. The diagnosis of GDM requires two elevated values in an oral glucose tolerance test but we found elevated amniotic fluid insulin, neonatal macrosomia and hypoglycemia even in women with only one elevated value. The values of the daily glucose profiles had not been predictive for the development of fetal macrosomia defined as an abdominal circumference (AC) > 90the percentile. In contrast, maternal obesity was tightly related to excessive fetal growth. We choose the fetal AC to diagnose intrauterine macrosomia since the fetal AC revealed to be an excellent predictor for neonatal macrosomia. Additionally, the fetal AC showed a good correlation to the fetal insulin levels determined by measurements of amniotic fluid insulin. A fetal AC > 75th percentile reliable excluded severe hyperinsulinism in our population. Based on this knowledge we performed three intervention studies where the decision for insulin therapy in women with GDM was predominately based on the fetal AC measurement. We could show that insulin therapy concentrated on pregnancies at risk for morbidity, defined as AC > 75th percentile, is a safe approach which results in a lower rate of neonatal macrosomia when insulin is given in pregnancies with AC > 75th percentile despite of normal maternal glucose level. On the other side, insulin could be avoided in 40% of the women with hypergylcemia since the fetal AC stayed < 75th percentile. In these women, the outcome even could be improved since insulin therapy in pregnancies with normal growth resulted in a high rate of growth retardation in the study group treated according the standard management. In summary, in pregnancies with GDM maternal blood glucose predicts morbidity in early pregnancy but it is of limited value to predict fetal hyperinsulinsm and it’s sequelae. The inclusion of fetal growth pattern in the considerations of therapy offers the opportunity to concentrate intensive intervention on pregnancies at high risk for morbidity.