Screening for Gestational Diabetes in Sri Lanka

With support from the Maternal Health Task Force, researchers at the Department of Community Medicine at Rajarata University in Sri Lanka sought to understand the prevalence and impact of maternal morbidity.

A brief research letter focusing on their findings relating to gestational diabetes was recently published in the Ceylon Medical Journal:

A total of 223 pregnant mothers were studied. There were 96 mothers with at least a single risk factor for GDM. These included current pregnancy indications in 81 (36.3%), previous pregnancy indications in 23 (8.1%) and mothers with first degree relatives with type 2 diabetes mellitus, 25 (11.2%). Only 29 (30.2%) mothers with risk factors had any type of standard screening test (Table 1). This included PPBS 26 (27.1%) and OGTT 3 (3.1%). However, only 6 mothers had PPBS during the first trimester. In the present sample, there were no mothers with GDM.

To learn more about the Department of Community Medicine’s project, click here.