Arushi Bidhuri
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Written By: Arushi Bidhuri | Updated : August 18, 2021 4:31 PM IST
Gestational diabetes is a form of diabetes that develops in a pregnant woman who has never had diabetes prior to becoming pregnant. Gestational diabetes can impact more than one pregnancy in certain women. Gestational diabetes generally manifests itself in the third trimester of pregnancy. Doctors ask pregnant women to screen for it between 24 and 28 weeks. The disease is linked to a greater risk of major problems, including death, during pregnancy and delivery. Glucose levels might rise as a result of hormones that circulate during pregnancy. Some women's levels return to normal without causing harm. Others may experience short- and long-term cardiac problems when their blood sugar levels rise. A new study has found that gestational diabetes during pregnancy can even increase the risk of eye problems in kids.
According to a study published in Diabetologia, children born to mothers who have diabetes before or during pregnancy are more likely to suffer vision impairments. The researchers looked at the links between maternal diabetes before or during pregnancy and the likelihood of high refractive error (RE), which is a disease in which the eye fails to focus images on the retina. RE encompasses both long and short-sightedness, as well as astigmatism, and is one of the most prevalent types of visual impairment.
When a foetus is exposed to the effects of maternal diabetes while still in the womb, it can have a detrimental impact on the baby' development and lead to high RE later in life. The researchers predicted that the strongest links would be seen among mothers with diabetes problems, given these women often have more severe instances of the condition. Mothers with diabetes were classified as having the disease either before or during pregnancy, and those with pre-gestational diabetes who had acquired complications as a result of their condition were divided into two groups based on whether they had one or more difficulties.
Out of the 2,470,580 live births studied, 56,419 (2.3%) were exposed to maternal diabetes, with 0.9 per cent and 0.3 per cent involving type 1 and type 2 pre-gestational diabetes (meaning diabetes prevalent before pregnancy), respectively, and 1.1 per cent involving gestational diabetes. Over the research period, the proportion of newborns to women with diabetes grew from 0.4 per cent in 1977 to 6.5 per cent in 2016.
During the follow-up phase, high RE was found in 533 kids of diabetic mothers and 19,695 offspring of non-diabetic moms. When compared to unaffected kids, maternal diabetes was linked to a 39% increased chance of high RE. The researchers discovered a difference in RE risk between type 1 and type 2 diabetes, with rates of high RE relative to unexposed persons being 32% and 68% higher, respectively, in type 1 and type 2 diabetes. The authors observed that "hypermetropia (long-sightedness) occurred more frequently in childhood and myopia (short-sightedness) was more frequent in adolescence and young adulthood."
Early detection and management can have a lasting positive impact because many REs in young children is curable. Despite the fact that the 39 per cent greater risk has a small impact size, given the enormous global incidence of REs, any small improvement in this low-risk preventive factor would lead to a massive reduction in absolute numbers of these eye diseases. They suggest that early screening for eye problems in children whose moms have diabetes can help keep their eyesight in excellent shape.
(with inputs from IANS)
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