Research
Energy balance
Combined lifestyle interventions (diet, exercise, education, self-monitoring) for gestational diabetes reduce the risk of large-for-gestational age (LGA) infants and decrease neonatal fat mass.
For women with gestational diabetes, combining healthy eating, physical activity, and blood glucose monitoring helps prevent having an overly large baby and reduces fetal fat mass. This approach is the primary recommended treatment.
ModerateSupportsMEDIUM confidence
Lifestyle interventions were associated with a reduction in the risk of being born large-for-gestational age (LGA) (RR 0.60, 95% CI 0.50 to 0.71; six trials, 2994 infants; I2 = 4%; moderate-quality evidence). Exposure to the lifestyle intervention was associated with decreased neonatal fat mass compared with the control group (mean difference (MD) -37.30 g, 95% CI -63.97 to -10.63; one trial, 958 infants; low-quality evidence).
Why this rating
Moderate quality for LGA, low for fat mass; downgraded due to inconsistency and risk of bias.
Source
Lifestyle interventions for the treatment of women with gestational diabetes
Julie Brown et al. · Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews · 2017
DOI 10.1002/14651858.cd011970.pub2
Meta-analysis · 15 studiesCited 283×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
More from this paper
- Lifestyle interventions for gestational diabetes do not significantly reduce the risk of caesarean section, pre-eclampsia, or induction of labour compared to usual care.Moderate
- Lifestyle interventions for gestational diabetes reduce the risk of postnatal depression and increase the likelihood of meeting postpartum weight goals.Limited
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