Published Paper Details:

Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is a pregnancy-specific disease defined as 'diabetes that is first diagnosed in the 28 th week of pregnancy of pregnancy that is clearly not overt diabetes' The occurrence of Gestational Diabetes Mellitus (GDM), has been linked to obesity, GDM in earlier pregnancies, older maternal age, ethnicity and multiparty as well as family history of diabetes. Obesity is a known risk factor of GDM. The prevalence of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) varies in direct proportion with the prevalence of type 2 diabetes. We examined socio economic status, health and nutrition status a total of 522 women visiting community health centers (CHC) in Moka(94) and Torangal(428), were screened for GDM. In phase one the screening of the pregnant women for prevalence of GDM by one step procedure assessing plasma blood sugar values. In the present study (n=127) where having impaired glucose tolerance. The rural women diagnosed with impaired tolerance after screening were about 48.8 percent (62) in the age group of 20-21 years. A higher percentage of the subjects (79.5) predominantly belong to joint families. The family size of 2-4 members in the house hold was 42.5 percent and 35.4 percent were 5-6 members in a household. The age group in this study is lower because the subjects were primigravida. About 26.8 percent of them attained menarche at the age of 12 years and 11.8 percent of the respondents attained at 14 years. The age at marriage was found to be 59.1 percent in the age group of 18-19 years this indicates that the respondents were married in their teenage years in most of the rural households. The pre pregnancy weight was measured at the first antenatal visit 18.9 percent of the respondents were in the range of 39-42kg and 35.4 percent of the respondents were in the range of 43-47 kg and only 15 percent of the respondents were above 53 kg. 10.2 percent of the subjects were in very good health among all age groups and only 7.1 percent were having fair health status. However, the findings established the non significant association between age group and general health condition (x2 = 2.41NS). 86.4 percent of subjects in 21 and above years were not suffering from common ailments in the past 3 months. The association was significant (X2 = 6.17*). Subjects of nuclear family were having less incidence (15.4%) of common ailments when compared to joint family (37.6%) subjects, which was significant(X2 = 4.62*).On the whole the data reveals that association of age with incidence of maternal Diabetes is statistically significant ( X2 = 6.68*).