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Association of maternal diabetes during pregnancy with visual acuity development in offspring: a prospective cohort study

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Abstract

Aims

We aimed to investigate the association between maternal diabetes before or during pregnancy and visual acuity development in offspring at 1 and 4 years old.

Methods

This prospective cohort study comprised 301 individuals born in 2015–2017. Those who had maternal diabetes during or before pregnancy (type 1 diabetes, type 2 diabetes and gestational diabetes) were investigated. Two visual examinations were routinely performed on children relatively at the age of 1 at physical examination and at the age of 4 at admission to school to assess the possible effects of gestational exposure to diabetes on the visual system of the offspring.

Results

Data were collected on children aged 1 and 4, which consisted of 173 children of mothers exposed to diabetes and 128 children of mothers without diabetes). We found no significant association between maternal diabetes during pregnancy and visual acuity development in 1-year-old offspring. At 4 years old, the incidence of amblyopia and strabismus was similar in both groups. Prenatal exposure to maternal diabetes was associated with a 171% increased risk of high RE: OR 2.71 (95% CI 1.08, 6.81), p < 0.05. Astigmatism (13.3% vs 5.5%) was found to be significantly more prevalent in children born to mothers with GD than in the controls (p = 0.025 in both groups). Moreover, offspring exposed to PGDM had a higher overall risk of high RE than those exposed to GDM during pregnancy (25.0% vs 17.4%). We further found that in the offspring of diabetic mothers, the risk of high RE was significantly increased among children who were female or who spent more time using electronic devices daily.

Conclusions

Our findings suggest that maternal diabetes during pregnancy is associated with an increased risk of high RE in offspring. Regular ophthalmological screening should be advised to offspring of mothers with diabetes diagnosed before or during pregnancy.

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Abbreviations

RE:

Refractive error

GDM:

Gestational diabetes mellitus

PGDM:

Pregestational diabetes mellitus

GD:

Gestational diabetes

IDMs:

Infants of diabetic mothers

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Funding

This study was supported by the Jiangsu Province Graduate Research and Practice Innovation program (KYCX21-3123) and Funding of Science and Technology Program of Nantong City (MS12020036).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Medicine School of Nantong University, Nantong, China

    Qinwen Xu, Feng Zhang, Jin Liu & Ruilin Zhu

  2. Affiliated Maternity and Child Health Care Hospital of Nantong University, Nantong, China

    Jingyu Li & Jie Yu

  3. Affiliated Hospital of Nantong University, Nantong, China

    Xujuan Xu

Authors
  1. Qinwen Xu
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  2. Feng Zhang
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  3. Jingyu Li
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  4. Jin Liu
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  5. Ruilin Zhu
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  7. Xujuan Xu
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Xujuan Xu.

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

The study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the affiliated Hospital of Nantong University(2021-K004-01).

Informed consent

Informed consent was obtained from caretakers on behalf of the children enrolled in our study.

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This article belongs to the topical collection Pregnancy and Diabetes, managed by Antonio Secchi and Marina Scavini.

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Xu, Q., Zhang, F., Li, J. et al. Association of maternal diabetes during pregnancy with visual acuity development in offspring: a prospective cohort study. Acta Diabetol 59, 1461–1468 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00592-022-01933-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00592-022-01933-9

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