Gestational Diabetes: Can Epidemiology Help?

Diagnostic criteria for diabetes mellitus (DM) and impaired glucose tolerance from oral glucose tolerance test results in adults are reviewed in the epidemiological context, highlighting the residual differences between World Health Organization (WHO) and National Diabetes Data Group (NDDG) glycemic criteria with respect to the diagnosis of gestational diabetes. Although the value of the diagnosis of DM (WHO/NDDG criteria) in pregnancy is not called into question, attention is drawn to the paucity of evidence linking lesser degrees of glucose intolerance with significant disturbance of pregnancy outcome when confounding variables such as maternal age, adiposity, and parity are allowed for. It is in the area of the detection and treatment of these lesser degrees of glucose intolerance in pregnancy that serious questions of the detriment-to-benefit ratio arise. A population-based multiethnic multicultural inquiry into diagnostic methodology and criteria in pregnancy is proposed, jointly sponsored by the WHO and the International Diabetes Federation, extending, if possible, to a controlled clinical trial of the effects of intervention.