What do Mothers know about gestational diabetes: knowledge and awareness

• Author Details:   
• Sujindra Elamurugan
• Bupathy Arounassalame

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Introduction: Prevalence of diabetes including gestational diabetes mellitus has been increasing recently due to wide differences in living conditions, socio-economic levels and dietary habits. Hyperglycemia during organogenesis negatively influences fetal development leading to adverse perinatal outcome. Hence this study was planned to study the awareness about GDM among antenatal mothers.
Methods: Total of 200 antenatal mothers were included in the study, who filled in a close-ended questionnaire. The questionnaire comprised of 13 questions (6 on knowledge about GDM and its risk factors, 4 about GDM screening and treatment and 3 about the consequences of GDM). All questions were given categorical responses (yes and no) and were applied with an item score of ‘1’, ‘0’ respectively for positive knowledge. The data was analyzed and results were entered using simple means and percentage.
Results: 100% response rate was present. Mean age was 28±3.2 years. 44.5% of mothers were primigravida and 15.5% of mothers had history of GDM either in present or previous pregnancy. The total knowledge score about gestational diabetes was 7.72. The score for knowledge on GDM and its risk factors was 4.65. The knowledge score for awareness on screening and treatment was 1.78 and a consequence of GDM was 1.29.
Conclusion: The knowledge of our women on GDM was just average. Health education and awareness programs should be conducted to improve knowledge of antenatal mothers for better utilization of health services.

Keywords: Gestational diabetes, Antenatal mothers, Awareness