Each Pregnancy Raises Woman’s Risk of Diabetes, Study Indicates

A woman’s risk of developing Type II diabetes, also known as adult-onset diabetes, increases with each successive pregnancy, according to results of a UC San Diego study published in today’s New England Journal of Medicine.

The increased risk of developing Type II diabetes and impaired glucose tolerance, a condition that leads to diabetes, exists “independent of age, obesity and a family history of diabetes,” conditions normally used to predict who will develop the disease, according to the study’s principal author, Donna Kritz-Silverstein, an epidemiologist in UCSD’s department of community and family medicine.

However, the increased risks associated with multiple pregnancies are slight and the study should not be used as the basis for family planning, according to co-author Elizabeth Barrett-Connor, a medical doctor who is chairman of the department of community and family medicine.

“I certainly wouldn’t do my family planning based on this study,” Barrett-Connor said. “Rather, we think this study is important because it suggests something new about how people may develop diabetes.”

Researchers now must seek an understanding of how multiple pregnancies affect the “diabetic gene” responsible for Type II diabetes, Lerner said. “The cause or gene (responsible for Type II diabetes) is not yet known,” Lerner said. “That’s the real issue, and this (study) may be one way to help uncover that underlying factor.”

Type II diabetes, also known as noninsulin-dependent diabetes mellitus, or NIDDM, differs from juvenile diabetes, an inherited medical condition that develops in infancy or childhood. Juvenile diabetes, which can result in serious health problems, often must be treated with medication. Adult-onset diabetes, however, usually is treated by adjusting a patient’s diet and exercise regime.