NIH-funded findings suggest screening for sleep disordered breathing may help in reducing gestational diabetes risk
WHAT:
Sleep-disordered breathing in early pregnancy is associated with insulin resistance or difficulty clearing glucose from the blood, suggests a small study funded by the National Institutes of Health. The results strengthen the link between sleep-disordered breathing, which includes pauses or slowing of breathing during sleep, and gestational diabetes. They also suggest that screening pregnant women, particularly those with overweight or obesity, for sleep-disordered breathing could identify those who might benefit from early interventions to reduce their diabetes risk.
The study monitored the sleep of 221 pregnant women with overweight or obesity from the 11th through 15th week of their pregnancies and measured their insulin resistance. The more frequently they experienced sleep-disordered breathing and the more often their blood oxygen levels dropped during sleep, the more likely they were to have insulin resistance and elevated fasting blood sugar levels. This risk persisted after the investigators considered participants’ age, body mass index and other factors.
Laura Sanapo, M.D., of the Women’s Medicine Collaborative and Brown University Providence, Rhode Island, and colleagues conducted the study, which appears in Sleep. The study was funded by NIH’s Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute and National Institute of General Medical Sciences.
WHO:
John Ilekis, Ph.D., of the NICHD Pregnancy and Perinatology Branch is available for comment.
ARTICLE:
Sanapo, L., et al. Association between sleep disordered breathing in early pregnancy and glucose metabolism. Sleep. 2021.
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About the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD): NICHD leads research and training to understand human development, improve reproductive health, enhance the lives of children and adolescents, and optimize abilities for all. For more information, visit https://www.nichd.nih.gov.
About the National Institutes of Health (NIH): NIH, the nation's medical research agency, includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal agency conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and is investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit https://www.nih.gov.
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