gression rate was reduced to 7.4% per year with intensive lifestyle intervention and 7.8% per year with
metformin treatment.
Public Health Implications
As the prevalence of gestational diabetes increases, it is
appropriate to ask the difficult questions regarding its
overall public health impact. An understanding of what
resources are required for its diagnosis and treatment
and how cost-effective our efforts will be is essential.
An analysis of the costs and benefits of diagnosis and
treatment of mild gestational diabetes [75-g, 2-h glucose tolerance test value of 140 –199 mg/dL (7.77–
11.05 mmol/L)] revealed that the incremental direct
inpatient and outpatient hospital cost of treating 1 case
of mild gestational diabetes was A$539.85 (Australian
dollars), and the additional charges incurred by the patient’s family were A$65.21 (70). For every 100 cases of
gestational diabetes that were identified and treated,
2.2 fewer babies experienced serious perinatal complications (defined as death, shoulder dystocia, bone fracture, and nerve palsy), and 1 fewer babies experienced
perinatal death. The incremental cost per serious perinatal complication prevented was A$27 503. There is
great concern that the new recommendations from
IADPSG/ADA may increase healthcare costs without
improving the health of our population (71). A Canadian randomized trial(72) revealed that the per patient
direct costs of screening and testing would be greater
(Can$108.38 [Canadian dollars]) with a 1-step approach using the WHO criteria (16) than with 2-step
protocols utilizing either the NDDG-recommended
(11) 100-g, 3-h OGTT criteria (Can$91.61) or the Canadian Diabetes Association(73) criteria (Can$89.03).
In this randomized trial the investigators did not test
the new IADPSG/ADA criteria (1). The prevalence of