Risk Factors for Gestational Diabetes Mellitus among Ghanaian Women at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital

Abstract

Several risk factors have been identified as contributing to the development of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM).  Knowing and ranking these risk factors for GDM will provide useful information for health care providers in educating women on the need to reduce the risk of developing GDM. This study aimed at establishing and ranking the maternal risk factors for GDM in the Ghanaian community. The study strongly linked women with history of still birth (OR=10.42, p=0.0004), relatives having diabetes (OR=8.08, p=0.004), history of more than two miscarriages (OR=3.15, p=0.0001), previous caesarean operations (OR=3.06, p=0.0004) and more than two parities (OR=3.03, p=0.0027) to the development of GDM. There was however no significant difference between the body mass index (BMI) of the GDMs and the controls (p>0.05).

Key words: Gestational diabetes, caesarian section, maternal risk factors, parity