Results: Among 18 095 singletons delivered at
34 weeks of gestation or later, 412 (2.3%) were
admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) for
respiratory distress within the first hours of life.
The incidence of NICU admission due to respiratory
distress groups was 2.2%, 5.7% and 2.1% in the nonDM,
IT-DM and NIT-DM groups, respectively. Insulin
treatment of DM, together with several other perinatal
factors, was associated with a significant increased risk
for respiratory distress. Several markers of the severity
of respiratory illness, including durations of mechanical
ventilation and supplemental oxygen, and hypertrophic
cardiomyopathy were also found increased following
IT-DM as compared with NIT-DM. In a multivariate
model, we found that IT-DM, but not NIT-DM, was
significantly associated with respiratory distress
independent of gestational age and caesarean section,
with an incidence rate ratio of 1.44 (1.00–2.08)