Study On Effect Of Certain Amount Of Exercise On Blood Glucose Control And Associated Complications Of Pregnant Women With Gestational Diabetes Mellitus

Background Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is a form of diabetes first diagnosed during pregnancy. An increased prevalence of GDM is found in China in recent years. Women with GDM are at higher risk of gestational hypertension, preeclampsia, cesarean delivery and macrosomia and so on. Most importantly, GDM is also a common complication of pregnancy associated with an increased incidence of maternal and fetal risks of chronic health conditions later in life. Physical activity has been proposed to reduce the risk of GDM and is supported by observational studies, however, researchers have been unable to suggest a cost-effective, easily accessible, evidence-based program with guidelines for frequency, intensity, duration, and type of activity to prevent the incidence of GDM. True effectiveness of specific structured exercise programs remains untapped in GDM prevention and treatment and many well-controlled exercise studies are warranted.Objective To observe effect of a certain amount of exercise on the blood glucose level in pregnant women with GDM and observe the effect of a month’s such exercise on the delivery complications.Methods We studied 125 GDM patients who were admitted to clinic from January,2010 to May 2011.65 subjects carried out the moderate exercise bout with an moderate intensity consuming 90 thousand calories on the exercise day and kept this kind of exercise every day for one month. The other 60 patients were observed as control group without such extra exercise. We analyzed the blood glucose values at different time.Results The 65 patients could all resist the exercise. On the whole, the average decrease of blood glucose was 0.90±0.43mmol/L(P=0.001) and 1.1±0.22mmol/L after one month. There is statistical significant decrease of both self monitoring blood glucose (SMBG) and continuous glucose monitoring system blood glucose (CGMSBG) after exercise. In the study group,12/65 patients received insulin treatment and 7/65 had macrosomia delivery. In the control group,27/60 patients received insulin treatment and 18/60 had macrosomia delivery.Conclusions There is statistical significant decrease of blood glucose after 90K calories exercise. Persistence of this 90K calories’ exercise may decrease insulin use and macrosomia delivery together with other complications.