Dr. Michele Kiely, the associate dean for research at the CUNY School of Public Health, co-authored a paper on how adiposity and weight change influence long-term risk of developing type 2 diabetes after gestational diabetes mellitus. The paper was co-authored with colleagues from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development/NIH, Brigham and Women’s Hospital (Boston), Harvard Medical School, Rigshospitalet (Copenhagen, Denmark), Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, and Statens Serum Institut (Copenhagen, Denmark).
Women with a history of gestational diabetes, enrolled in the Diabetes and Women’s Health Study, were followed by questionnaire. Body weight and incident type 2 diabetic cases were reported biennially. Both baseline and updated BMI were strongly and positively associated with future risk of type 2 diabetes. Additionally, each 5 kg increment of weight gain after GDM development was associated with a 27 percent higher risk of type 2 diabetes. These associations were independent of other major risk factors of type 2 diabetes, including lifestyle factors such as diet and physical activity.
This paper was chosen for the Upfront in this issue for June.