Drinking artificially sweetened beverages during pregnancy a risk factor for GDM

Pregnant women who frequently drink artificially sweetened beverages are at increased risk of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM), according to a study.

Researchers used data from the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health and identified 3,653 participants for inclusion. They applied a generalized linear mixed model and augmented inverse probability weighting estimator to estimate the relative risk and average treatment effect to examine artificially sweetened beverage consumption prior to and during pregnancy in relation to adverse pregnancy outcomes.

The mean age of the participants was 33.7 in the preconception exposure group and 33.3 years in the pregnancy exposure groups, while the mean BMI was 25.4 and 25.6 kg/m², respectively. A total of 38.6 percent in the preconception exposure group and 38.1 percent in the pregnancy exposure group reported consumption of artificially sweetened beverages, including 10.4 percent and 7.2 percent who reported frequent consumption (≥5 drinks/ week), respectively.

In the preconception exposure group, GDM occurred in 9.1 percent of participants, hypertensive disorder of pregnancy (HDP) occurred in 6.7 percent, and preterm birth (PTB) occurred in 4.3 percent. The corresponding proportions in the pregnancy exposure group were 8.6 percent, 7.5 percent, and 4.0 percent.

Compared with nonconsumption, frequent consumption of artificially sweetened beverage (≥5 drinks/week) during pregnancy was associated with increased risk of GDM (adjusted relative risk [aRR], 1.88, 95 percent confidence interval [CI], 1.12–3.14). This association appeared to be mediated by maternal BMI, with the net indirect effect of BMI on GDM being significant (coefficient, 0.06, 95 percent CI, 0.02–0.10).

Meanwhile, the associations between artificially sweetened beverage consumption during pregnancy and the risks of HDP and PTB were uncertain, as were those between preconception artificially sweetened beverage consumption and all outcomes.