A Survey of the relationship of Gestational Diabetes Mellitus on Neonate’s Apgar score

Introduction: Gestational Diabetes Mellitus (GDM) may have harmful effects on neonate health. Since Apgar score is the first investigation indicator of neonate health, this study was conducted to investigate the relation between GDM and neonate Apgar score. Methods: This study is a case-control one, in which 50 neonates from mothers suffering from GDM and 100 neonates from healthy ones born in 2005-2010 in Vali-e-Asr hospital, Fasa, Iran, were selected randomly based on their medical file numbers. The cases were homogeneous regarding gestational age and were compared regarding their fetal features and apgar score in the first and fifth minutes after the birth. Then, Apgar score of the neonates from healthy mothers and those suffering from GDM were compared by T-test. Then using multivariate regresion, the relation between GDM and the neonate Apgar score were investigated after omitting confounder factors effect. Results: The average age of the mothers suffering from GDM and control group were 31.5±5.0 and 27.6±6.3 years old, respectively. Also, the average gestational age of the former and the later were 37.9±1.6 and 38.3±1.7 weeks, respectively. Apgar score of the first minute in the neonates of the former and the later were 8.6±0.6 and 8.7±0.7, respectively (P=0.157). But, Apgar score of the fifth minute in the former 9.5±0.6 was significantly lower than the later 9.8±0.4 (P=0.002). Regression analysis showed that the difference between Apgar score of the fifth minute in both groups wasn’t affected by confounder variables and this was just due to GDM. Conclusion: Since Apgar score of the fifth minute in the neonates from the mothers suffering from GDM was significantly lower than those from healthy ones and due to the fact that apgar score indicator decrease leads to some disorders and problems in the neonates from the mothers suffering from GDM, taking the neonates into consideration as much as possible would be helpful in improving health level