(PORTLAND, Ore.) - The largest study of gestational diabetes and childhood obesity ever conducted shows that mothers' high blood glucose (sugar) during pregnancy nearly doubles their children's risk of obesity at age 5-7. Children of mothers who had very high levels of blood sugar were 89 percent more likely to be overweight and 82 percent more likely to be obese by the time they were 5-7 years of age, compared to children whose mothers had normal blood sugar levels during pregnancy. The study also shows, for the first time, that if pregnant women were treated for gestational diabetes (the highest level of blood sugar), their children had a comparable risk of overweight and obesity as children whose mothers had normal levels of blood sugar. The results appear in the September issue of Diabetes Care.

The study, Childhood Obesity and Metabolic Imprinting: The Ongoing Effects of Maternal Hyperglycemia, conducted at Kaiser Permanente's Center for Health Research Northwest and Hawaii (CHR), analyzed the medical records of 9,439 mother-child pairs who were members of Kaiser Permanente's health plan in the Northwest or Hawaii. The women, who gave birth between 1995 and 2000, were screened for blood sugar level and gestational diabetes (GDM) while they were pregnant. The women's offspring were measured for weight between the ages of 5 and 7 - the so-called "adiposity rebound" period, a strong predictor of adult obesity. The relationship between maternal blood sugar and childhood obesity was then analyzed.

"Our results show several important things," says Teresa Hillier, MD, MS, an endocrinologist and senior investigator at CHR Northwest and Hawaii, and the lead author of the study. "The first is that the risk of childhood overweight and obesity rose in step with higher levels of blood sugar in pregnant women. We adjusted for other important risk factors for childhood obesity - mother's age, number of previous children, mother's weight gain during pregnancy, mother's ethnicity, child's gender, and weight of child at birth - to best interpret how the increased risk of childhood obesity could be attributed to the pregnant women's levels of hyperglycemia. The good news here is that when pregnant women were treated for gestational diabetes, their children's risk for overweight and obesity dropped considerably. In fact, their obesity risk was not statistically different than children of mothers with normal blood sugar levels. This suggests that the 'metabolic imprinting' for childhood obesity that results from gestational diabetes in pregnant women may be reversible."

"Hyperglycemia during pregnancy is clearly playing a role in America's epidemic of childhood obesity," Dr. Hillier says. "My advice to pregnant women is three-fold. First, discuss screening for gestational diabetes with your doctor, usually done between weeks 24 and 28 of pregnancy. Second, if the screening tests show you do have gestational diabetes, work with your physician to begin treating your diabetes. Finally, stick with the treatment during your pregnancy. It's the best thing you can do for your own health and for reducing your child's risk of obesity."

The study was funded by a grant from the American Diabetes Association.

Kaiser Permanente's Center for Health Research, founded in 1964, is a non-profit research institution dedicated to advancing knowledge to improve health. Kaiser Permanente is America's leading integrated health plan. Founded in 1945, it is a not-for-profit, group practice program headquartered in Oakland, Calif. Kaiser Permanente serves more than 8.7 million members in nine states and the District of Columbia. Today it encompasses the not-for-profit Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, Inc., Kaiser Foundation Hospitals and their subsidiaries, and the for-profit Permanente Medical Groups. Nationwide, Kaiser Permanente includes approximately 156,000 technical, administrative and clerical employees and caregivers, and 13,000 physicians representing all specialties. For more Kaiser Permanente news, visit the KP News Center at: http://xnet.kp.org/newscenter.

For more infomation contact:

Terry Fitzpatrick 503-335-6602
or Danielle Cass 510-267 5354

Released: July 24, 2007