Grant: CIHR Fellowship

Gestational diabetes, marked by high blood sugar levels during pregnancy, is a common problem. Women and their children exposed to gestational diabetes are at higher risk for developing diabetes later in life. We know that healthy diet and exercise improve sugar metabolism, but we do not know whether lifestyle and/or genetics have a role in the progression of diabetes among those affected by gestational diabetes. We also do not know whether affected women's lifestyle choices after the childbirth have an impact on risk of obesity and diabetes in their children. We aim to study whether lifestyle and/or genetics are related to the progression from gestational diabetes to diabetes later in life. We will also study whether affected women's lifestyle choices after the childbirth have an impact on risk of obesity in their children. We will test our objectives within longitudinal research studies following women for over 20 years. The Nurses' Health Study II is an ongoing study following 116,430 female nurses. Women are asked to report their medical and lifestyle information every other year. They also donate blood and urine samples to test genetic and biomarkers. We assembled women with a history of gestational diabetes to test our research questions. We are also following their children through Growing-Up Today Study (GUTS) and GUTS-II and collecting children's growth information. In current practices, women are only advised to monitor blood sugar levels during the first year after the pregnancy affected by gestational diabetes and are offered no lifestyle advice beyond the pregnancy. Our proposed study will assist in finding risk factors for diabetes and in developing diabetes prevention strategies specific to these high risk young women and their children.