(814) The Association Between Diabetes Mellitus During Pregnancy and Retinopathy of Prematurity

Objective: We aimed to evaluate the association between diabetes mellitus (DM) during pregnancy and retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) in preterm infants younger than 32 gestational weeks or infants with low birthweight (< 1500 grams).

Study Design: We conducted a retrospective nested case-control study of all premature infants who were born alive and survived the post-delivery hospitalization period in Soroka Medical Center, with either gestational age younger than 32 weeks or birthweight less than 1,500 grams, during the years 2013-2021. The infants were divided into two groups according to ROP status. Multivariable logistic regression was used to analyze the association between ROP and DM.

Results: During the study period, there were 881 pairs of women and newborns who met the inclusion criteria. The ROP group included 345 infants (39.1%). 22 (6.4%) of the mothers in the ROP group were diagnosed with DM during pregnancy compared with 52 of 536 (9.7%) in the control group (P=0.082). ROP was associated with oxygen treatment (OR 1.05; 95% CI, 1.03-1.08; P< .001), birthweight < 1250 g` (OR 2.70; 95% CI, 1.93-3.80; P< 0.001) and advanced maternal age (OR 1.03; 95% CI, 1.01-1.06; P=.01). Steroid treatment (OR 0.73; 95% CI, 0.60-0.89; P=.002) and advanced gestational age (OR 0.92; 95% CI, 0.85-1.00; P=0.05) were found as protective factors for ROP. Using multivariable logistic regression analysis and adjusting for multiple risk factors, it was found that there is no significant association between maternal DM and the development of ROP.

Conclusion: The presence of maternal diabetes mellitus does not increase the likelihood of ROP in pre-term infants.