Xia Chen,1 Jianmin Zhang,1 Yuanru Tang,1 Yan Zhang,2 Ziwen Ma,2 Yifan Hu2 

1Department of Gynecology, Waitan Street Community Health Service Center, Shanghai, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, Pudong New Area Health Care Hospital for Women and Child Gynecological Clinic, Shanghai, People’s Republic of China

Correspondence: Jianmin Zhang, Email 360032800@qq.com

Purpose: This study explores the link between women’s pre-pregnancy overweight and obesity and glucose and lipid metabolism in their early pregnancy. It assesses how early pregnancy glucose and lipid levels predict gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) risk, aiming to offer foundational weight management strategies for overweight and obese women to prevent GDM.
Patients and Methods: This study analyzed 2172 pregnant women from 2017 to 2021 at Waitan Street Community Health Service Center, Shanghai, monitoring early pregnancy (7– 10 weeks) glucose and lipid levels (TG, TC, HDL-C, LDL-C, FBG, HbA1c) and 24-week OGTT values. Pre-pregnancy BMI categorized participants into overweight and obese, normal, and underweight groups. We compared early pregnancy glycemic and lipid metrics and GDM incidence across groups, examining the relationship between pre-pregnancy BMI and early pregnancy blood metrics. The overweight and obese cohort was further split into GDM and non-GDM groups, comparing early pregnancy glycolipid indicators and assessing their predictive value for GDM development.
Results: In the overweight and obese group, maternal FBG, HbA1c, TG, and LDL-C were higher, while HDL-C was lower than in normal and underweight groups (P< 0.05), with a higher GDM incidence (P< 0.05). Pre-pregnancy BMI positively correlated with FBG, HbA1c, TG, and LDL-C levels (r=0.556, 0.567, 0.686, 0.214; P< 0.05) but not HDL-C. Each 1-unit BMI increase raised GDM risk by 0.204 times (P< 0.05). FBG, TG, and LDL-C had high predictive accuracy for GDM in overweight and obese women, with AUCs of 0.991, 0.994, and 0.935, respectively.
Conclusion: Pre-pregnancy overweight and obesity can cause early pregnancy glucose and lipid abnormalities, raising GDM risk. Early testing in such women is a strong predictor for GDM.

Keywords: pregnant women, overweight and obesity, pre-pregnancy body mass index, glucose and lipid metabolism, gestational diabetes mellitus