Quality of life of pregnant women with gestational diabetes: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Abstract

Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is any degree of impaired glucose tolerance first recognised during pregnancy. The quality of life of pregnant women with gestational diabetes is one of the major health and social concerns of countries. However, findings of available studies regarding the quality of life of these patients are inconsistent. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the quality of life of pregnant women with gestational diabetes. Methods: Relevant studies were included by searching the ISI Web of Science, Scopus, and PubMed databases up to November 2023. To avoid missing any publication, we also checked the reference lists of included and recent reviews, and meta-analyses. JBI Critical Appraisal Checklist For Analytical Cross Sectional Studies tool was used to assess the methodological quality of studies. Mean differences (MD) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were pooled using a random-effects model. Statistical analysis was done using Stata software. Results: Fifteen studies were included in this systematic review and the meta-analysis. Most of the studies (11 studies, 73.3%) were conducted in high-income countries. In most of the studies, SF-36 and WHOQOL-BREF tools were used to evaluate the quality of life. The findings showed that the quality of life of women with GDM, which was measured with the SF-36 tool, compared to the control group, has no statistically significant difference (MD: 1.30, 95% CI: -0.68 to 3.28). However, in general health and mental component, the quality of life of women with GDM was significantly lower compared to the control group. The mean of the quality of life using WHOQOL-BREF tool was 49.69. The MD in quality of life between the GDM and control groups was -7.40 (95% CI: -16.12 to 1.33). There was evidence of high heterogeneity among studies. The median quality score of studies was 5 and its mean was estimated as 4.8 out of 7.