Neurodevelopmental Outcome in Offspring Born Following Gestational Diabetes

Abstract

This chapter will review the published literature on neurodevelopmental outcomes in offspring born following GDM. The literature describing cohort studies is divided into preschool, school age and adult neurodevelopmental outcomes. There is a complex interplay of social factors, obesity and environment that needs to be fully accounted for when assessing neurodevelopmental and cognitive outcomes following GDM. However, the studies describing school age follow-up demonstrate a concerning pattern of lower cognitive scores, attention issues, hyperactivity and poor fine motor skills following maternal GDM. There is also a section describing data linkage studies on the topic, which reinforces concerns regarding neurodevelopmental outcome following maternal GDM and raise the issue of ASD. In addition, there is consideration of neurodevelopmental outcome following different pharmacological treatment regimens for GDM. Finally, there are a few thoughts on important further research in the area.