Research

Mixed

Combined diet and exercise interventions during pregnancy do not significantly reduce the risk of developing gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) compared to standard care alone, although they may reduce the risk of preterm birth.

Current evidence does not support combined diet and exercise interventions as a reliable method for preventing gestational diabetes. However, these interventions are still recommended because they reduce the risk of preterm birth and improve maternal health behaviors. Pregnant women should engage in light-to-moderate exercise and healthy eating for overall pregnancy health, not solely for GDM prevention.

ModerateRefutesMEDIUM confidence
Results from 13 RCTs (of moderate quality) suggest no clear difference in the risk of developing GDM for women receiving a combined diet and exercise intervention compared with women receiving no intervention... Women receiving a combined diet and exercise intervention were, however, found to have a reduced risk of preterm birth compared with women receiving no intervention (RR 0.71, 95% CI 0.55 to 0.93; five trials, 2713 women).
Emily Bain et al. · Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews · 2015

Why this rating

Moderate quality RCTs with moderate risk of bias, but significant heterogeneity in intervention protocols and population characteristics.

Source

Diet and exercise interventions for preventing gestational diabetes mellitus

Emily Bain et al. · Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews · 2015

DOI 10.1002/14651858.cd010443.pub2

Meta-analysis · 13 studiesCited 187×
Read the paper
DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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