Health Research

Apr 27 2008

Diabetes Doubling Before Motherhood, Kaiser Permanente Study Finds

Incidences of diabetes before motherhood more than doubled in six years among teenage and adult women, according to a Kaiser Permanente study published in the May issue of the journal Diabetes Care.
Researchers at Kaiser Permanente’s Department of Research & Evaluation in Pasadena, Calif., looked at 175,249 women who gave birth in 11 Kaiser Permanente hospitals in Southern California between 1999 and 2005. Researchers found that there were twice as many births to women with diabetes in 2005 as there were in 1999.

It’s the largest known study to look at the trends in both gestational diabetes, which develops during pregnancy but usually disappears after the baby’s birth., and also pre-pregnancy type 1 and type 2 diabetes.

Given that two-thirds of Americans are overweight or obese, and nearly 15 million children are overweight or obese, these study findings are especially relevant.

For more information, read this press release and read the online edition of Diabetes Care.