- Experts say gestational diabetes is on increase, driven partly by obesity
- Older mothers are also more prone to developing condition while pregnant
- Around 15 per cent of British mothers are obese when expecting a child
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Experts are warning of a huge rise in the number of children with diabetes because their mothers developed the condition during pregnancy
Experts are warning of a huge rise in the number of children with diabetes because their mothers developed the condition during pregnancy.
They claim the ‘future will be filled’ with affected children, after a study showed babies exposed to the condition in the womb are six times more likely to develop diabetes or prediabetes than those not exposed.
Experts say gestational diabetes is on the increase, driven partly by obesity as well as the rise in older mothers who are more prone to developing the condition while pregnant.
The warning comes after a charity report earlier this year found one in seven UK hospital beds are currently occupied by someone with diabetes, pushing the NHS bill for treating it to a record £10billion a year.
It is known babies whose mothers develop gestational diabetes may have problems balancing blood sugar levels in early life, but US research has quantified the risk.
It looked at 255 obese children with a normal glucose tolerance, who were selected for the study at around the age of 12.
All were investigated for exposure to gestational diabetes in the womb and underwent a glucose tolerance test – used to diagnose diabetes – which was repeated three years later.
Scientists found 210 children (82 per cent) had not been exposed to gestational diabetes, while 45 (18 per cent) had.
Just 9 per cent of those whose mothers did not have the condition developed type 2 diabetes themselves, or impaired glucose tolerance (IGT), a prediabetic condition. However, 31 per cent of children whose mothers had gestational diabetes went on to develop either prediabetes or type 2 diabetes, indicating an increased risk of 5.75-fold.
Study leader Dr Sonia Caprio, from the Yale School of Medicine, said: ‘Exposure to gestational diabetes was the most significant predictor of developing IGT or type 2 diabetes, with an increased risk of almost six times for those children exposed in the womb.’
A report published in Diabetologia, the journal of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes, called the results ‘alarming’. It said the affected group of children showed a reduction in beta cell function – the cells that produce insulin.
They also displayed a lower insulin sensitivity, which is linked with type 2 diabetes.
The study says: ‘Obese normal glucose-tolerant children of gestational diabetes mothers have pre-existing defects in beta cell function. This is a strong risk factor for these children to develop prediabetes or diabetes.
‘The ever growing number of women with gestational diabetes suggests that the future will be filled with children with early diabetes at a rate that far exceeds the current prevalence.’
Around 15 per cent of British mothers are obese when expecting a child, up from 7 per cent 20 years ago.
Doctors have previously warned the obesity epidemic amongst women could jeopardise the health of the next generation.
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