Project summary
Women who’ve had gestational diabetes have a 10-fold higher risk of later developing type 2 diabetes. Dr Nerys Astbury and her PhD student will develop a ‘calculator’ to predict which women have the highest risk. They’ll then create a new, tailored treatment that aims to help women reduce their risk. This research could help to prevent more cases of type 2 in women who’ve had gestational diabetes, giving women healthier futures.
Background to research
Gestational diabetes is a type of diabetes that develops during pregnancy. It usually goes away after giving birth. But women who’ve had it are around 10 times more likely to later develop type 2 diabetes, compared to those who haven’t.
Type 2 diabetes is serious. And women with a history of gestational can be at risk of developing type 2 at a younger age, which can be even more harmful to health.
Losing weight is one way to help reduce the risk of type 2. But current type 2 prevention programmes that support people to lose weight haven’t been designed to work around busy mums’ lives. Meaning women who’ve had gestastional diabetes can fall through the cracks.
Research aims
Dr Nerys Astbury and her PhD student aim to advance what we know about the risks of developing type 2 diabetes after gestational diabetes, and develop a new intervention to help reduce risk.
Their project is split into three studies.
- They’ll study data from previous research that’s examined the risk of type 2 in people who’ve had gestational diabetes. Using this data, they’ll find out if the risk of type 2 differs in different groups of women. For example, does risk change depending on people’s age, ethnicity or bodyweight?
- They’ll use artificial intelligence to generate a score from information in health records that predicts the chances that a person will develop type 2 diabetes, long before any symptoms. This would help doctors identify which women would most benefit from support to reduce their risk.
- They’ll develop a new strategy to reduce the future risk of type 2 diabetes, specifically for women who’ve had gestational diabetes. The intervention will involve diet and weight management support and will be created with people with lived experience of gestational diabetes, to make sure it meets their needs. Finally, they’ll run a small study involving 60 women to see if the intervention holds promise and if they should run a larger clinical trial to build more evidence that it works.
Potential benefit to people with diabetes
Up to 50% of women diagnosed with gestastional diabetes will develop type 2 diabetes within five years. Dr Astbury’s research could help to shrink this number by providing more targeted and tailored care to support women to reduce their risk. Better care could prevent a new generation of women from developing type 2 diabetes and its serious complications.
