Impacts of gestational diabetes on quality of life in Chinese pregnant women in urban Tianjin, China

Abstract

Aims: This study aimed to examine impacts of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) on quality of life (QoL) domains in Chinese pregnant women.

Methods: We recruited 13,358 pregnant women in Tianjin, China. GDM was diagnosed using the criteria of International Association of Diabetes and Pregnancy Study Group. QoL was measured using the 36-Item Short-Form Health Survey. General linear model was used to obtain β-coefficient and 95% confidence intervals (CI) of GDM for QoL domain and summary scores.

Results: 7.25% of the pregnant women developed GDM. Among the QoL domain and summary scores, only general health (GH) score was lower in the GDM group than in the non-GDM group. GDM and advanced maternal age (i.e., ≥ versus <30 years) were negatively associated with GH in multivariable analyses (β-coefficient: -1.17, 95%CI: -2.17 to -0.17 & -0.79, -1.40 to -0.18, respectively). In subgroup analyses, the β-coefficient of GDM for GH among women with maternal age ≥30 years was enhanced to -2.17 (-3.94 to -0.40) in multivariable analysis while the β-coefficient of GDM for GH among women aged <30 years was attenuated to non-significance.

Conclusions: GDM and advanced maternal age were associated with reducing GH, and presence of advanced maternal age markedly increased the effect of GDM on GH.

Keywords: Chinese pregnant women; Gestational diabetes mellitus; Maternal age; Quality of life.