Association between Temperature and Diabetes Mellitus in Pregnancy

Abstract

Purpose: Exposure to heat and cold stress can negatively affect pregnant women. However, studies on the association between ambient temperature exposure and pregnant women, especially those with diabetes mellitus, are limited. The presence of this disease is likely to affect the woman’s capacity to adapt to the demands of pregnancy, consequently affecting fetal development. We examined the association between exposure to the mean temperature and diabetes mellitus during pregnancy.Methods: Health Insurance Reviews and Assessment Service was used to obtain data on patients hospitalized between January 2015 and August 2022. The association between the number of pregnant patients with diabetes mellitus according to monthly mean temperature and seasonal differences was analyzed using a generalized additive model. The model was adjusted for the treatment date, mean humidity, and mean age of the women.Results: The total number of patients with diabetes mellitus in pregnancy was 651,655 and the mean temperature was 12.87℃±9.89℃. The association between the mean temperature and diabetes mellitus during pregnancy showed a U-shaped nonlinear association. During the entire period, the number of patients with diabetes mellitus in pregnancy significantly increased by 2.82 per 1℃ increase in mean temperature (estimate, 2.82; 95% confidence interval [CI], -2.06 to 7.71). The number of patients significantly increased by 72.12 per 1℃ increase in mean temperature in the summer (estimate, 72.12; 95% CI, 50.36–93.89), but the increase was not statistically significant in the winter.Conclusion: Our findings suggest that maternal exposure to mean temperature during pregnancy is associated with diabetes mellitus.