Association between Maternal Birth Weight and Gestational Diabetes Mellitus: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS

Gestational diabetes mellitus is one of the most important issue related to health status of mothers and their children throughout life. This meta-analysis has been conducted to assess relationship between maternal birth weight and gestational diabetes.

METHODS AND RESULTS

This article is written using PRISMA guideline for systematic review and meta-analysis. We searched epidemiological studies without a time limit from following databases-Scopus, PubMed, Science Direct, Embase, Web of Science, CINAHL, Cochrane, EBSCO, and Google Scholar search engine using MESH keywords. Heterogeneity was determined using the Cochran test and index. Data were analyzed using comprehensive meta-analysis, version 2. The significance level of the tests was considered as  < 0.05.

RESULTS

The result of combining ten studies with a sample size of 228,409 cases using a fixed-effect model showed that low maternal birth weight increased the risk of gestational diabetes mellitus (1.71 [95% CI 1.43-2.06,  < 0.001]). In addition, the result of combining nine studies with a sample size of 227,805 cases using a random-effects model showed that macrosomia did not increase the risk of gestational diabetes mellitus, and there was no significant relationship between them (1.04 [95% CI 0.79-1.38; value: 0.730]).

CONCLUSION

The results of this systematic review and meta-analysis showed that low maternal birth weight could be a risk factor for gestational diabetes in adulthood.