Confirming several previous reports, a recent study has shown that women who develop diabetes in pregnancy ( gestational diabetes mellitus or GDM) tend to be shorter than their glucose-tolerant counterparts. It shows specifically that women with GDM have shorter legs, or lower "leg-to-height percentage" than women without the condition. Researchers form the Illawarra Area Health Service in Australia, measured leg length and leg-to-height percentage in 61 pregnant women with GDM and 161 who had normal tolerance for glucose. They discovered that women with GDM were 2.8 cm (about 1 inch) shorter on average than women who were glucose tolerant. This was almost entirely due to their leg lengths, which were an average of 3.2 cm shorter. The reason for this is not entirely apparent and requires further research. The clinical implications of these observations are "unlikely to be of major importance," according to the researchers. Short stature per se is not a risk factor for developing and therefore testing for GDM. The study does, however, further reinforce the significance of the effect of intrauterine programming on the development of diseases in later life.
Diabetes Care,
May 2004