Maternal Age and Prevalence of Gestational Diabetes Mellitus
- Terence T. Lao, MD12,
- Lai-Fong Ho, MSC3,
- Ben C.P. Chan, MBBS13 and
- Wing-Cheong Leung, MBBS13
- 1Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Queen Mary Hospital, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
- 2Research Centre of Heart, Brain, Hormone and Healthy Aging, Queen Mary Hospital, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
- 3Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Kwong Wah Hospital, Hong Kong, China
- Address correspondence to Prof. Terence Lao, Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology, Queen Mary Hospital, 102 Pokfulam Rd., Hong Kong, People’s Republic of China. E-mail: laotth{at}hkucc.hku.hk
Maternal age is an established risk factor for gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM), but there is no consensus on the age above which there is significantly increased risk of GDM. In the literature, the lowest cutoff is ≥25 years, as recommended by the American Diabetes Association (1), but there are little data to support this recommendation. To determine the age threshold for increased risk of GDM, we have reviewed the prevalence of GDM, diagnosed by the World Health Organization criteria (2), in the singleton pregnancies managed in our department from 1998 to 2001. Data on maternal …
