The association of body composition with the risk of gestational diabetes mellitus in Chinese pregnant women: A case-control study

Studies have found that the measurement of body composition can be used to identify the gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) risk in pregnant women. However, few studies focused on the relationship between body composition and GDM development in low GDM risk population. Thus, the objective of this study was to examine the association between body composition and the development of GDM in pregnant women with low risk of gestational diabetes. A retrospective case-control study was conducted. We reviewed the medical records of 3965 pregnant women who had body composition measurement from March, 2016 to May, 2018 in our hospital. Their sociodemographic, clinical data, and body composition information were collected from medical record. Multiple logistic regression analyses were used. A total of 2698 subjects were eligible for the study. The mean age of the gravidas was 30.95 ± 4.01 years old. Of all gravidas, 462 had gestational diabetes. Percentage body fat was the strongest risk factor for gestational diabetes after adjusting pre-pregnancy body mass index (BMI) (odds ratio = 1.786, 95% confidence interval = 1.112–2.866, P = .02). The age and extracellular water/intracellular water ratio were independently associated with gestational diabetes. Percentage body fat was the strongest risk factor for gestational diabetes after adjusting pre-pregnancy BMI. Assessment of body composition may provide important guidance to identify gestational diabetes in pregnant women with low gestational diabetes risk.