R. Bond R, et al. – Researchers performed a retrospective cohort study to evaluate whether polycystic ovary syndrome further increases postpartum diabetes risk in women with gestational diabetes mellitus and to explore relationships between polycystic ovary syndrome and incident diabetes in women who do not develop gestational diabetes. Polycystic ovary syndrome confers additional risk for incident diabetes postpartum in women with gestational diabetes. There was no association between PCOS and incident diabetes in women without gestational diabetes. Moreover, given the already elevated risk of diabetes in women with a history of gestational diabetes, a history of both polycystic ovary syndrome and gestational diabetes signal a critical need for diabetes surveillance and prevention.

Methods

• Researchers conducted a retrospective cohort study (Quebec Physician Services Claims; Hospitalization Discharge Databases; Birth and Death registries) including a sum of 34 686 women with gestational diabetes during pregnancy (live birth), matched 1:1 to women without gestational diabetes by age group, year of delivery and health region.
• They utilized diagnostic codes to characterize polycystic ovary syndrome and incident diabetes.
• They applied cox regression models to evaluate correlations between polycystic ovary syndrome and incident diabetes.

Results

• They observed 1.5 % polycystic ovary syndrome in women with gestational diabetes and in women without gestational diabetes, it was 1.2%.
• It was showed that there were more younger mothers and mothers who were not of white European ancestry among those with polycystic ovary syndrome.
• Furthermore, those with polycystic ovary syndrome more often had comorbidity and a lower proportion had a previous pregnancy.
• Evidence showed that polycystic ovary syndrome was correlated with incident diabetes (hazard ratio 1.52; 95% CI 1.27, 1.82) among women with gestational diabetes.
• They distinguished no conclusive correlations between polycystic ovary syndrome and diabetes (hazard ratio 0.94; 95% CI 0.39, 2.27) in women without gestational diabetes.