Exercise intervention during pregnancy can be used to manage weight gain and improve pregnancy outcomes in women with gestational diabetes mellitus

BACKGROUND: The study aimed to evaluate whether exercise intervention can be applied to pregnant women with gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) for controlling gestational weight gain (GWG) and combating GDM-related outcomes. METHODS: Retrospective six months analysis of 14,168 single pregnant women without diabetes from 15 hospitals in Beijing in 2013. Each participant’s demographic data, interventions condition and medical information were collected individually by questionnaires and relying on medical records. The level of statistical significance was set equal to 0.05. RESULTS: 2750 (19.4 %) pregnant women were diagnosed with GDM, 74.9 % of them received exercise intervention during pregnancy, and the starting time was 25.8 ± 3.7 gestational weeks. Women with GDM with exercise intervention (GDM-E) had the lowest BMI increase during late and mid-pregnancy than women with GDM without exercise intervention (GDM-nE) (2.05 ± 1.32 kg/m(2) vs. 2.40 ± 1.30 kg/m(2), p < 0.01) and non-GDM women (2.05 ± 1.32 kg/m(2) vs. 2.77 ± 1.21 kg/m(2), p < 0.01). Moreover, GDM-E group experienced a significantly lower risk of preterm birth (5.58 % vs. 7.98 %, p < 0.001), low birth weight (1.03 % vs. 2.06 %, p < 0.001) and macrosomia (9.51 % vs. 11.18 %, p > 0.05) than GDM-nE group. After including dietary factors in the analysis, women with GDM without either dietary or exercise intervention (GDM-nDnE) had the highest risk of preterm birth(OR = 1.64, 95 % CI, 1.14–2.36), while women with GDM with dietary intervention only (GDM-DnE) had the highest risk of low birth weight (OR = 3.10, 95 % CI, 1.23–7.81). However, women with GDM with both dietary and exercise intervention had the lowest rate of macrosomia. CONCLUSION: Exercise intervention is a suitable non-invasive therapeutic option that can be readily applied to manage weight gain and improve pregnancy outcomes in women with GDM.