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Cited by 35Nutritional Studies and DietGestational Diabetes Research and ManagementDiet and metabolism studies

The effect of diet quality on the risk of developing gestational diabetes mellitus: a systematic review and meta-analysis

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Gao, Xiaoxia, Zheng, Qingxiang, Jiang, Xiumin, Chen, Xiaoqian, Liao, Yanping, Pan, Yuqing·2023·Frontiers in Public Health
DOI 10.3389/fpubh.2022.1062304PMC PMC9868748
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Abstract

Objective: To examine the effect of diet quality on the risk of gestational diabetes mellitus. Methods: This review included cohort and case-control studies reporting an association between diet quality and gestational diabetes mellitus. We searched PubMed, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, Embase, PsycINFO, CINAHL Complete, Chinese Periodical Full-text Database, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, Chinese Biomedical Literature Database, and China Wanfang Database for studies published from inception to November 18, 2022. The Newcastle-Ottawa Scale was used for quality assessment, and the overall quality of evidence was assessed using the GRADEpro GDT. Results: A total of 19 studies (15 cohort, four case-control) with 108,084 participants were included. We found that better higher diet quality before or during pregnancy reduced the risk of developing gestational diabetes mellitus, including a higher Mediterranean diet (OR: 0.51; 95% CI: 0.30-0.86), dietary approaches to stop hypertension (OR: 0.66; 95% CI: 0.44-0.97), Alternate Healthy Eating Index (OR: 0.61; 95% CI: 0.44-0.83), overall plant-based diet index (OR: 0.57; 95% CI: 0.41-0.78), and adherence to national dietary guidelines (OR: 0.39; 95% CI:0.31-0.48). However, poorer diet quality increased the risk of gestational diabetes mellitus, including a higher dietary inflammatory index (OR: 1.37; 95% CI: 1.21-1.57) and overall low-carbohydrate diets (OR: 1.41; 95% CI: 1.22-1.64). After meta-regression, subgroup, and sensitivity analyses, the results remained statistically significant. Conclusions: Before and during pregnancy, higher diet quality reduced the risk of developing gestational diabetes mellitus, whereas poorer diet quality increased this risk. Systematic review registration: https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/PROSPERO/, identifier: CRD42022372488.

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  • Women with balanced, nutritious diets were at lower risk of metabolic abnormalities.

    “Women with balanced, nutritious diets were at lower risk of metabolic abnormalities, a finding corroborated by Gao et al. (23), who found that higher diet quality was associated with a lower risk of gestational metabolic abnormalities.”

    From Maternal nutritional status and the risk of metabolic syndrome in pregnancy: implications for public health nutrition (2026) · cites this paper as Gao et al. [23]

    The Discussion and Conclusions (pages not provided) report that higher diet quality before or during pregnancy was associated with lower risk of gestational diabetes mellitus. They do not establish a lower risk of gestational metabolic abnormalities more broadly, so the citing sentence extends the finding beyond the outcome studied. (LLM, conf=0.88)

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Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Gao, X., Zheng, Q., Jiang, X., Chen, X., Liao, Y., & Pan, Y.
Affiliations
Fujian Medical University (CN)
ORCID
Pan, Yuqing
Venue
Frontiers in Public Health
Publisher
Frontiers Media SA
Published
2023-01-09
Volume
10
Pages
1062304-1062304
ISSN
2296-2565 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.3389/fpubh.2022.1062304
PMC
PMC9868748
OpenAlex
W4313888905
Cited by
35
References
9
Citations by year
2026: 11 · 2025: 11 · 2024: 10 · 2023: 3
FWCI
1.73
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • Frontiers in Public Health (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Nutritional Studies and Diet
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Obstetrics and Gynecology › Gestational Diabetes Research and Management
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology › Diet and metabolism studies
Keywords
gestational diabetes mellitus, diet quality, Mediterranean diet, DASH diet, Alternative Healthy Eating Index, plant-based diet, dietary guidelines adherence, Dietary Inflammatory Index, low-carbohydrate diet, prenatal nutrition
MeSH terms
Diet, Healthy, China, Female, Humans, Hypertension, Pregnancy, Diabetes, Gestational, Diet, Mediterranean

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