OAKLAND, Calif. -- Diabetes before motherhood more than doubled in six years among teenage and adult women, according to a Kaiser Permanente study.

This is the largest study to examine the trends in both pre-pregnancy type 1 and type 2 diabetes and gestational diabetes (diabetes that develops during pregnancy then usually disappears after the baby is born) in teenagers and adult women from a large racially and ethnically diverse population. Pre-pregnancy type 1 and type 2 diabetes is more dangerous and harder to treat than gestational diabetes and carries more risks to mother and baby.

Researchers at Kaiser Permanente's Department of Research & Evaluation in Pasadena looked at 175,249 women who gave birth in 11 Kaiser Permanente hospitals in Southern California between 1999 and 2005. Researchers found that there were twice as many births to women with diabetes in 2005 as there were in 1999. Fifty-two percent of the women in the study were Hispanic, 26 percent were White, 11 percent were Asian/Pacific Islanders and 10 percent were African-American.

This study found significant jumps in pre-pregnancy diabetes in every age, racial and ethnic group:

-- Diabetes increased fivefold among 13- to 19-year-olds giving birth
-- Diabetes doubled among women 20- and 39-year-olds giving birth
-- Diabetes increased by 40 percent among women 40 and older giving birth
-- African-American, Hispanic, and Asian/Pacific Islander women were more likely to have diabetes before pregnancy than White women.


"More young women are entering their reproductive years with diabetes, in part due to the fact that our society has become more overweight and obese," said lead author Jean M. Lawrence, ScD, MPH, MSSA, a research scientist at Kaiser Permanente's Department of Research & Evaluation. "While we currently don't know how to prevent type 1 diabetes, the steps to reducing risk of type 2 diabetes must start before childbearing years: healthy eating, active living and maintaining a healthy weight. These habits should begin in childhood and continue through adulthood."