Exposure to Gestational Diabetes and Type 2 Diabetes In Utero Increases the Risk for Type 2 Diabetes

This study aimed to determine if exposure to gestational diabetes and type 2 diabetes during pregnancy increased a child’s risk for type 2 diabetes in their teen years. DREAM scientist Brandy Wicklow and her team also wanted to see if the impact of diabetes exposure in the womb was different between First Nations and non-First nations offspring. Through linking a clinical pediatric diabetes database and a provincial administrative health database they studied 467 850 offspring for up to 30 years. Children exposed to type 2 diabetes had nearly a 4-fold greater increased risk for type 2 diabetes compared to those that were exposed gestational diabetes in the womeb (3.19 vs 0.80 cases per 1000 person-years, P < .001). First Nations offspring had a near 7-fold higher risk of developing T2D compared with non-FN offspring (0.96 vs 0.14 cases per 1000 person-years, P < .001). First Nations offspring also developed T2D at a younger age when compared to non-first nation offspring. Important differences exist in offspring risk based on type of diabetes exposure in utero. These findings have implications for future research and clinical practice guidelines, including early pregnancy screening to specify the type of diabetes exposure in pregnancy and the timing of follow-up screening of the offspring for T2D development. Read the overview of the study in the Winnipeg Free Press, and view the whole article in JAMA Pediatrics.