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Nutrition during the early life cycle

Estimated optimal gestational weight gain for pregnant women with gestational diabetes mellitus: a prospective cohort study in China

European Journal of Clinical Nutrition volume 77, pages 356–362 (2023)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Objectives

We aimed to evaluate the inter-hospital variability of gestational weight gain (GWG) among women with gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) in China and explore GDM-specific optimal GWG relative to the National Academy of Medicine (NAM) targets.

Methods

A prospective multicenter University Hospital Advanced Age Pregnant Cohort study was conducted from March 2017 to June 2021 at eight hospitals in China. The range of mean GWG across hospitals and the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) were used to evaluate the inter-hospital variability of GWG. For normal-weight and overweight women with GDM, potential optimal GWGs were derived by minimizing the joint risk of small and large for gestational age (SGA and LGA), and the incidences of adverse perinatal outcomes were compared between women who met the optimal GWGs and those who met the NAM targets.

Results

A total of 3,013 women with GDM and 9,115 women without GDM were included. The GWG variation among hospitals was larger in women with GDM (range: 10.0–14.1 kg, ICC = 7.1%) than in women without GDM (range: 13.0–14.5 kg, ICC = 0.7%). The estimated optimal GWGs for women with GDM were lower than the NAM targets, as 9.5–14.0 kg for normal-weight and 3.0–7.5 kg for overweight women. Women with GDM who met the optimal GWGs had lower incidences of LGA and macrosomia compared to those who met the NAM targets, with no significant increase in the incidences of SGA, preterm birth, etc.

Conclusions

The marked variation of GWG among hospitals in women with GDM indicates the need to develop optimal GWGs for them. The potential optimal GWGs for women with GDM might be lower than the NAM targets, likely benefiting the perinatal outcomes.

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Fig. 1: Predictive probability curves of SGA, LGA, and sum of SGA and LGA with respect to GWG.

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Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to all physicians, nurses, and other staff members from the University Hospital Advanced Age Pregnant Cohort. We are also indebted to all participants in the cohort.

Funding

This study was supported by grants from the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2016YFC1000401). The funders of the study had no role in study design, data collection, data analysis, data interpretation, or writing of the report.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Reproductive and Child Health/National Health Commission Key Laboratory of Reproductive Health, Peking University Health Science Center, Beijing, 100191, China

    Zhihao Cheng, Hongtian Li, Hongzhao Yu, Yubo Zhou & Jianmeng Liu

  2. Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Peking University Health Science Center, Beijing, 100191, China

    Zhihao Cheng, Hongtian Li, Hongzhao Yu, Yubo Zhou & Jianmeng Liu

  3. Obstetrics & Gynecology Department, Peking University First Hospital, Beijing, 100034, China

    Yumei Wei

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Contributions

JL, YZ and HL conceived the study; ZC and YZ wrote the manuscript; ZC performed the statistical analysis; YW, HL and JL contributed to the critical review of the manuscript; YW, YZ, HL, ZC, HY and JL participated in the data acquisition; and JL had full access to all the data in the study, and takes responsibility for the integrity and analysis. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Yubo Zhou or Jianmeng Liu.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

Ethical approval

The study was approved by the Institutional Review Board of Peking University Third Hospital (approval number: IRB00006761-2016145), and all participants provided informed consent.

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Cheng, Z., Wei, Y., Li, H. et al. Estimated optimal gestational weight gain for pregnant women with gestational diabetes mellitus: a prospective cohort study in China. Eur J Clin Nutr 77, 356–362 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41430-022-01238-8

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