Education via WeChat improves glucose control and pregnant outcomes in women with gestational diabetes mellitus / 中华围产医学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To evaluate the effect of strengthening nutrition intervention in gravidas with gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) with WeChat on blood glucose control and pregnant outcomes.Methods A total of 410 gravidas,diagnosed with GDM and treated in the Department of Clinical Nutrition of Shanghai General Hospital from October 2015 to April 2016,were enrolled and randomly divided into two groups (n=205).The control group received traditional nutrition clinic education only,while the intervention group was given strengthened nutrition education through WeChat in addition to traditional education.Blood glucose level and insulin dosage were followed up after one,two and four weeks of intervention.Pregnant outcomes and patient satisfaction were investigated on 42 d after delivery.T test,Chi-square test and non-parametric test were used for statistical analysis.Results (1) Two weeks after the intervention,the average 1-hour postprandial blood glucose in the intervention group was lower than in the control group [(7.46± 1.01) vs (7.68± 1.06) mmol/L,t=2.243,P=0.025].After 4 weeks,both 1-and 2-hour postprandial blood glucose levels of the intervention group were lower than those of the control group [(7.03±0.65) vs (7.33±0.63) mmol/L,t=4.629,P＜0.05;(6.00±0.65) vs (6.21 ±0.62) mmol/L,t=3.153,P＜0.05] and more gravidas achieved euglycemia [79.9％ (151/189) vs 60.8％ (113/186),x2=16.483,P＜0.001].(2) Compared with the control group,the intervention group had a higher vaginal delivery rate [38.7％ (72/186) vs 50.5％ (95/188),x2=5.288,P=0.021] and a lower rate of postpartum complications [9.1％ (17/186) vs 2.1％ (4/188),x2=7.394,P=0.007].All of the gravidas in the intervention group were satisfied with the WeChat intervention except one lost to follow up [99.5％ (203/204)].Conclusions Strengthening nutrition education through WeChat is much more effective than traditional nutritional outpatient education alone in order to achieve a better control of blood glucose and improve pregnant outcomes in GDM women.This intervention is highly acceptable to gravidas and can be further extensively applied in nutrition clinic.