PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Andrea L. Blotsky AU - Elham Rahme AU - Mourad Dahhou AU - Meranda Nakhla AU - Kaberi Dasgupta TI - Gestational diabetes associated with incident diabetes in childhood and youth: a retrospective cohort study AID - 10.1503/cmaj.181001 DP - 2019 Apr 15 TA - Canadian Medical Association Journal PG - E410--E417 VI - 191 IP - 15 4099 - http://www.cmaj.ca/content/191/15/E410.short 4100 - http://www.cmaj.ca/content/191/15/E410.full SO - CMAJ2019 Apr 15; 191 AB - BACKGROUND: Indicators of childhood- and youth-onset diabetes may be useful for early detection of diabetes; there is a known association between composite exposure of parental type 2 diabetes and gestational diabetes mellitus with childhood- and youth-onset diabetes. We examined associations between gestational diabetes mellitus and incidence of childhood- and youth-onset diabetes in offspring.METHODS: Using public health insurance administrative databases from Quebec, Canada, we randomly selected singleton live births with maternal gestational diabetes mellitus (1990–2007) and matched them 1:1 with singleton live births without gestational diabetes mellitus. Follow-up was to Mar. 31, 2012. We examined associations of diabetes in offspring with maternal gestational diabetes mellitus through unadjusted and adjusted Cox proportional hazards models. In secondary analyses, we separately considered age groups ranging from birth to age 12 years, and age 12 to 22 years.RESULTS: Incidence of pediatric diabetes (per 10 000 person-years) was higher in offspring born to mothers with gestational diabetes mellitus (4.52, 95% confidence interval [CI] 4.47–4.57) than in mothers without gestational diabetes mellitus (2.4, 95% CI 2.37–2.46). In an adjusted Cox proportional hazards model, maternal gestational diabetes mellitus was associated with development of pediatric diabetes overall (birth to age 22 yr: hazard ratio [HR] 1.77, 95% CI 1.41–2.22), during childhood (birth to age 12 yr: HR 1.43, 95% CI 1.09–1.89), and in youth (age 12 to 22 yr: HR 2.53, 95% CI 1.67–3.85).INTERPRETATION: Gestational diabetes mellitus is associated with incident diabetes in offspring during childhood and adolescence. Future studies are needed to examine longer-term outcomes in patients with pediatric diabetes with a maternal history of gestational diabetes mellitus, to ascertain how they compare with other patients with childhood- or youth-onset diabetes, in terms of disease severity and outcomes.