A Case-Control Study of Food Habits and Diet Intakes of Women with Gestational Diabetes Mellitus

ABSTRACT

Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is defined as glucose intolerance discovered or onset during pregnancy and attention is needed because of increased risk of perinatal morbidties and higher incidence of diabetes afterward. This study was performed to identify dietary factors associated with the development of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM). Developed food frequency questionnaire containing 192 food items were used to assess nutritional status of 246 control subjects and 104 GDM subjects. Food habits of subjects were examined in the questionnaire. The more irregularity and less variety of meal were found in GDM group compared to control group and GDM group tended to eat rapidly and do not like vegetables and greasy foods. Total score of food habits in GDM was lower than control group, which suggests that GDM group have undesirable food habits. Mean daily energy and carbohydrate intakes of GDM group were higher than those of control group, and percent energy from protein was significantly higher in control. Nutrient density of protein, calcium, phosphorus and vitamin B1 of GDM group was significantly lower than those of control group. Therefore dietary quality of GDM group was lower than that of control group. Odds ratio for GDM was high when energy and carbohydrate intakes were high. And when the intakes of rice, noodle, shiruduk, hamburger, boiled egg, steamed pork shank were high, the odds ratio for GDM was high. These results indicate that the amount and frequencies of several foods and dish items were related with the occurrence of GDM subjects. On the whole, GDM subjects consumed more cereals and less vegetables and less legumes. From these results, pregnant women with GDM tended to have unhealthy food habits, and carbohydrate intake was important dietary factors on the onset of GDM.