Practical Practitioner
By: Pamela Egan, FNP-C CDE
Can physical activity help prevent gestational diabetes?
Dear Pam,
I just received confirmation that I’m pregnant. Diabetes runs in my family. Is it possible to prevent gestational diabetes?
The latest research sponsored by the American Diabetes Association involves the relationship between physical activity and risk of gestational diabetes.
We know that physical activity reduces the risk of Type 2 diabetes. There are clinical characteristics that are similar in both gestational and Type 2 diabetes.
Researchers at the University of Massachusetts are focusing their work on Latin American women. Gestational diabetes occurs two to four times more often in Latinas than their white counterparts. They are also more likely to develop gestational diabetes again in later pregnancies and are more likely to develop Type 2 diabetes later in life.
By studying a population with a higher rate of gestational diabetes, the team hopes to see a clear relationship between physical activity and decreased risk of diabetes.
The team will enroll about 2,300 Latinas in the study over three years.
The women will be interviewed twice during their pregnancy by bilingual interviewers. The questionnaires delve into the overall activity levels of participants.
It’s not just sports or exercise, they are measuring household activities, housework, sports, exercise and child-rearing.
A section on diet and nutrition includes references to foods that are popular in the Latino community, such as rice and beans, plantains and mangos.
A third section will collect background information, such as the person’s stress level and any use of alcohol, recreational drugs or tobacco.
The researchers hope to find that as physical activity increases, the risk of gestational diabetes decreases.
Researchers could then focus on prevention efforts that incorporate physical activity into women’s lives.
In turn, a lower rate of gestational diabetes may mean a lower rate of Type 2 diabetes in both mother and child later in life.
This article was originally published August 13, 2002 in The St. Tammany News.
PamelaEgan.com > Health Articles > Diabetes
