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CME Credit Offered
CME Credit Offered
Abstract Award
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Poster Session 3

(929) Association between the intensity and type of exercise and the risk of gestational diabetes

Friday, January 31, 2025
10:30 AM – 12:30 PM  

    Submitting Author and Presenting Author(s)

  • Takaki Tanamoto, MD (he/him/his)

    Intern
    United States Naval Hospital Yokosuka
    Yokosuka City, Kanagawa, Japan

    • Coauthor(s)

  • George R. Saade, MD (he/him/his)

    Professor and Chair, Associate Dean for Women's Health Obstetrics and Gynecology
    Macon & Joan Brock Virginia Health Sciences Eastern Virginia Medical School at Old Dominion University
    Norfolk, Virginia, United States

  • Tetsuya Kawakita, MD, MS

    Associate Professor
    Macon & Joan Brock Virginia Health Sciences Eastern Virginia Medical School at Old Dominion University
    Norfolk, VA, United States

Objective:

While some studies have shown that exercise reduces the incidence of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM), the recommended intensity of exercise has been anecdotal. Our objective was to examine the rate of (GDM) according to exercise intensity during pregnancy.   


Study Design:

We analyzed data from the Nulliparous Pregnancy Outcomes Study: Monitoring Mothers-to-Be (nuMoM2b), in which patients were enrolled prospectively starting in the first trimester, and data was obtained by trained research coordinators. Individuals with pregestational diabetes or delivery < 20 weeks were excluded. The primary exposure was the intensity of exercise performed in the first trimester categorized according to metabolic equivalent hours per week (MET-hr/week) into: none, low-intensity ( < 7.5 MET-hr/week), moderate-intensity (7.5-14.9 MET-hr/week), or high intensity (≧15 MET-hr/week). Our primary outcome was GDM. We also examined a composite of adverse pregnancy outcomes, including preeclampsia, gestational hypertension, preterm birth, small-for-gestational-age birth, and stillbirth. Adjusted relative risks (aRR) with 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) were calculated using modified Poisson regression, adjusting for potential confounders.


Results:

Of 9,551 individuals, 3,132 (29.7%) had no exercise, 2,531 (26.5%) had low-intensity exercise, 1,959 (20.5%) had moderate-intensity exercise, and 2,223 (23.3%) had high-intensity exercise. Demographics and socioeconomic status were different across the groups (Table 1). Compared to individuals with no exercise, those who performed high-intensity exercise had a lower risk of GDM (5.1% vs. 2.8%; aRR 0.61; 95% CI 0.45-0.82). However, other secondary outcomes remained similar (Table 2). Moderate and low-intensity exercise compared to no exercise were not associated with significant differences in GDM or other outcomes.


Conclusion:

High-intensity exercise was associated with a lower risk of GDM compared to no exercise. Future intervention studies focusing on exercise to prevent GDM are warranted.