Effectiveness of a screening protocol for gestational diabetes in pregnant Spanish women

Methods. aEuro integral We calculated GDM prevalence and the breaches of the diagnostic protocol out of 12,084 pregnant women who started the GDM detection program during 2004--2006. The prevalence of protocol breaches was used to estimate overall prevalence of GDM for the study population. Results. aEuro integral The overall prevalence of GDM was 6.4%% (95%% CI: 5.9--6.9%%). Ten percent of them did not comply with the protocol. Noncompliant subjects were, on average, older (31.4 aEuroS +/-+/- aEuroS5.7 vs. 30.0 aEuroS +/-+/- aEuroS5.7 years, p aEuroS < aEuroS0.001) and those with higher fasting blood glucose, 83 vs. 78 mg/dl (4.6 vs. 4.3 mmol/l) p aEuroS < aEuroS0.001) than compliant subjects. About one third (30%%) of the noncompliant women may be additional cases of GDM, which would increase the prevalence by 2.2%% (95%% CI: 1.9--2.5%%) for an estimated total figure of 8.6%% (95%% CI: 8.1--9.1%%). Conclusions. aEuro integral One out of every three cases of GDM may escape detection among women who do not complete the GDM screening protocol.