Glucose screening within six months postpartum among Chinese mothers with a history of gestational diabetes mellitus: a prospective cohort study

BACKGROUND: Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is a risk factor for diabetes mellitus. The 75-g, 2-h oral glucose tolerance test is recommended for mothers with a history of GDM to screen for diabetes in the postnatal period. The aim of this study was to investigate the rate of glucose screening within 6 months postpartum among Chinese mothers with a history of GDM, and to identify its predictors. METHODS: A prospective cohort study was conducted in a regional teaching hospital in Guangzhou, China, between July 2016 and June 2017. The participants were Chinese mothers (n = 237) who were diagnosed with GDM, were aged 18 years or older with no serious physical or mental disease and had not been diagnosed with type 1 or type 2 diabetes prior to their pregnancy. The revised Chinese version of the Champion’s Health Belief Model Scale and social-demographic and perinatal characteristics factors were collected and used to predict postpartum glucose screening (yes or no). Adjust odds ratio (AOR) and 95% confidence interval (95% CI) were calculated. RESULTS: The mean age of the 237 mothers was 32.70 years (range from 22 to 44). Almost half of the mothers (45.6%) were college graduates or higher. Chinese mothers reported a high level of perceived benefits, self-efficacy, and health motivation towards postpartum glucose screening, with a mean score above 3.5. Chinese mothers were more likely to undertake postpartum glucose screening if they were a first-time mother [AOR 2.618 (95% CI: 1.398–4.901)], had a high perceived susceptibility score [AOR 2.173 (95% CI: 1.076–4.389)], a high perceived seriousness score [AOR 1.988 (95%CI: 1.020–3.875)] and high perceived benefits score [AOR 2.978 (95%CI: 1.540–5.759)]. CONCLUSION: The results of this study will lead to better identification of mothers with a history of GDM who may not screen for postpartum glucose abnormality. Health care professionals should be cognizant of issues that may affect postpartum glucose screening among mothers with a history of GDM, including parity, perceived susceptibility, perceived seriousness and perceived benefits. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s12884-019-2276-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.