Affiliations 

  • 1 Department of Nutrition, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Selangor 43400, Malaysia
  • 2 Department of Dietetics, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Selangor 43400, Malaysia
  • 3 Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Selangor 43400, Malaysia
  • 4 Danone Specialized Nutrition (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd, Mid Valley City, Lingkaran Syed Putra, Kuala Lumpur 59200, Malaysia
  • 5 Nutricia Research Foundation, Conradpark 3, 2441 AE Nieuwvee, The Netherlands
  • 6 Department of Pediatrics, University Medical Centre Groningen, University of Groningen, Hanzeplein 1, 9713 GZ Groningen, The Netherlands
PMID: 33800084 DOI: 10.3390/ijerph18052694

Abstract

Food insecurity may exacerbate adverse maternal health outcomes during pregnancy, however, this association has not been well established, particularly in the context of developing countries. This study aimed to identify the associations between household food insecurity and gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) risk among urban pregnant women. Household food insecurity was assessed using the translated 10-item Radimer/Cornell hunger scale. Logistic regression models were used to estimate the associations between food insecurity status and GDM risk. About 35.6% of women experienced food insecurity, with 25.2% reported household food insecurity, 8.0% individual food insecurity, and 2.4% child hunger. Food insecure women were at significantly higher risk of developing GDM compared to food secure women (AOR = 16.65, 95% CI = 6.17-24.98). The significant association between food insecurity and GDM risk was influenced by pre-pregnancy BMI, parity and rate of GWG at second trimester. Food insecure women with parity ≥ 2 (AOR = 4.21, 95% CI = 1.98-8.92), overweight/obese BMI prior to pregnancy (AOR = 12.11, 95% CI = 6.09-24.10) and excessive rate of GWG in the second trimester (AOR = 9.66, 95% CI = 4.27-21.83) were significantly more likely to develop GDM compared to food secure women. Food insecurity showed strong association with GDM risk in that the association was influenced by maternal biological and physical characteristics. Multipronged interventions may be necessary for food insecure pregnant women who are not only at risk of overweight/obesity prior to pregnancy but also may have excessive gestational weight gain, in order to effectively reduce GDM risk.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.