The Relationship between Maternal Metabolic Variables and Gestational Diabetes in Bangladesh: A Systemic Review and Meta-Analysis

Abstract

Background: Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) causes hyperglycemia throughout pregnancy. Overweight/obesity, westernized food, nutritional inadequacies, advanced maternal age, and family history of insulin resistance and/or diabetes are risk factors. GDM normally resolves after birth, but it may have long-term health implications, including an increased risk for T2DM and CVD in the mother and obesity, CVD, T2DM, and/or GDM in the child. This creates a vicious cycle of obesity and diabetes that harms the community's health. Pregnancy serves as a natural "stress test" for the body, hence it's frequently called a "window" into future health. In Bangladesh, GDM studies focus on awareness, risk factors, etc., but not maternal metabolic characteristics. Methods: This meta-analysis was done. Online database searches on Cumulative Index to NCBI, PubMed, Google scholar, and Bangladesh Journals Online, as well as manual searches of potentially relevant references in review articles, were utilized to locate acceptable research. 3,824 citations were found. 3,252 abstracts/titles were discarded, leaving 176 for full- text analysis. Another 127 were deleted, leaving 49 electronic studies. No unpublished conference papers met our inclusion criteria. Final Systematic review includes 12 publications. Results: Significant association was found between BMI, HbA1c, Hormone level, CRP. However, no association was found among lipid profile. But association was found betwen TG and LDL-C with GDM. Conclusion: The meta-analysis suggests that early pregnancy screening of a cluster of metabolic variables may help detect and treat individual risk factors for gestational diabetes. Given the number and quality of included studies, further, better and larger research is needed to corroborate these conclusions.