Awareness of Gestational Diabetes among Antenatal Women at The King Fahd Military Medical Complex Hospital in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Background: Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) has recently gained increasing attention among researchers and health professionals. This growing interest is attributed to the rising rate in the development of type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM) during pregnancy and puerperium and later on, as established in GDM patients. Materials and methods: patients engaged in this survey were informed verbally that their involvement was voluntary, and that completing the distributed questionnaires implied that they had agreed to take part in the study, using questionnaires administered data were gathered by an obstetrics and gynecology doctor, questionnaire was designed following a comprehensive discussion with a team of experts in the field of GDM as it was tested via a pilot study to insure it’s reliability. The final copy of the questionnaire that was used in the actual study included 25 questions, a score of one was assigned to each correct answer and zero to each incorrect or “I don’t know” answer. A higher score showed that the respondent had better knowledge about GDM. Conclusion: This research found a considerable lack of awareness about GDM of the pregnant women interviewed. Moreover, the results showed that the respondents were aware that GDM is related to certain factors such as advanced maternal age, overweight, and obesity, among others. It was noted that the lack of awareness and knowledge among pregnant women led to poor self-care and management of GDM, which reflects unmet needs.