Silent upsurge of gestational diabetes: Are we aware? A rural tertiary care experience of Central Gujarat.

Background: The prevalence of Gestational Diabetes Mellitus has been on the rise. With the dramatic increase in the prevalence of overweight, obesity, and inactivity amongst the population, it's becoming a common problem affecting antenatal women and their offspring.
Subjects and Methods: A prospective cross-sectional study was carried out involving antenatal women between 24-28 weeks of gestation at a tertiary care centre in a rural part of Gujarat. Patients were screened using the Diabetes in Pregnancy Study Group India (DIPSI) guidelines. Analysis was carried out using Chi-square and ANOVA test.
Results: Patients having PG2BS ≥140 mg/dl were diagnosed as having Gestational Diabetes Mellitus (GDM), while those having PG2BS values between 120-139 mg/dl were diagnosed as having Gestational Glucose Intolerance (GGI). Out of the 300 patients screened, we found an overall prevalence of 52 (17.33%) having GDM and 65 (21.67%) having GGI. Most patients belonged to the age bracket of 21-30 years across all groups. The prevalence of GDM in rural antenatal women was 23 (44.2%) and in semi-urban antenatal women was 25 (48.1%) while GGI in the rural antenatal women was 45 (69.2%) followed by semi-urban antenatal women 19 (29.2). We found that Occupation, Residence, Lifestyle, Socio-Economic Class, Family history of Diabetes Mellitus, Body Mass Index (BMI) were all statistically significant whereas Antenatal Complications and Perinatal outcomes weren't.
Conclusion: With such a high prevalence of GGI, almost equivalent to GDM, it is important to identify patients having GGI and monitor them to prevent progression to GDM by starting an appropriate treatment modality.
Competing Interests: There are no conflicts of interest.
(Copyright: © 2022 Journal of Family Medicine and Primary Care.)