PMID- 38420077
OWN - NLM
STAT- PubMed-not-MEDLINE
LR  - 20240301
IS  - 2168-8184 (Print)
IS  - 2168-8184 (Electronic)
IS  - 2168-8184 (Linking)
VI  - 16
IP  - 1
DP  - 2024 Jan
TI  - Knowledge of Gestational Diabetes Mellitus Among Adult Females in Al Qassim 
      Province, Saudi Arabia: A Cross-Sectional Study.
PG  - e53166
LID - 10.7759/cureus.53166 [doi]
LID - e53166
AB  - Background Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is a carbohydrate intolerance of 
      variable severity with onset or first recognition during pregnancy; it does not 
      include diabetics who become pregnant or women who become lactosuric. Knowledge 
      of this problem among the public will promote its prevention, screening, and 
      treatment strategies. This study aims to assess the knowledge of GDM regarding 
      its risk factors, screening, treatment, and complications among women in the Al 
      Qassim Province, Saudi Arabia. Method A cross-sectional study was conducted among 
      617 females aged 18 years and older through convenience sampling between October 
      2022 and January 2023. An online questionnaire was distributed using Google Forms 
      (Google LLC, Mountain View, CA, USA) and WhatsApp (Meta, Menlo Park, CA, USA). 
      Data was entered, cleaned, and analyzed using SPSS Statistics version 27 (IBM 
      Corp., Armonk, NY, USA). Informed consent was obtained from every participant, 
      and the participants' information was kept confidential. Results In this study, 
      52.4% of the women (323/617) had moderate knowledge, and 27.6% (170/617) had 
      excellent knowledge about GDM. Only 13.3% (n = 82) knew the optimum time (24 to 
      28 weeks of gestational age) for gestational diabetes screening in the absence of 
      risk factors. Moreover, 44.6% (n = 275) knew that insulin is one of the 
      treatments for gestational diabetes, while 45.4% (n = 280) knew that gestational 
      diabetes increases a baby's risk of obesity and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) 
      later in life. A statistically significant association was found between the 
      development of GDM with multigravida (19.5%), a BMI of >25 (15%), and age 31 to 
      45 years (17.8%), with corresponding p-values of 0.001, 0.0001, and 0.0001, 
      respectively. Conclusion In this study, almost four-fifths of the study 
      population had moderate to excellent knowledge regarding GDM. However, there is a 
      need to enhance knowledge about optimum screening time and insulin use for 
      gestational diabetes treatment. Therefore, encouraging the existing population to 
      learn more about diabetes education programs and health promotional measures 
      should be undertaken periodically. Further studies are required to support this 
      study's findings.
CI  - Copyright (c) 2024, Almatrafi et al.
FAU - Almatrafi, Salem D
AU  - Almatrafi SD
AD  - Family Medicine, Family Medicine Academy, Qassim Health Cluster, Buraydah, SAU.
FAU - Sekhar, Chandra
AU  - Sekhar C
AD  - Family Medicine, Family Medicine Academy, Qassim Health Cluster, Buraydah, SAU.
LA  - eng
PT  - Journal Article
DEP - 20240129
PL  - United States
TA  - Cureus
JT  - Cureus
JID - 101596737
PMC - PMC10901295
OTO - NOTNLM
OT  - al qassim
OT  - gestational diabetes
OT  - knowledge
OT  - saudi arabia
OT  - screening
OT  - women
COIS- The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
EDAT- 2024/02/29 06:42
MHDA- 2024/02/29 06:43
PMCR- 2024/01/29
CRDT- 2024/02/29 04:06
PHST- 2024/01/29 00:00 [accepted]
PHST- 2024/02/29 06:43 [medline]
PHST- 2024/02/29 06:42 [pubmed]
PHST- 2024/02/29 04:06 [entrez]
PHST- 2024/01/29 00:00 [pmc-release]
AID - 10.7759/cureus.53166 [doi]
PST - epublish
SO  - Cureus. 2024 Jan 29;16(1):e53166. doi: 10.7759/cureus.53166. eCollection 2024 
      Jan.