Endocrine Abstracts

Background and aims: The prevalence of gestational diabetes (GDM) increases worldwide with rates between 9 and 35%. The management of GDM is a labor-intensive discipline, in which the global increase in GDM prevalence poses challenges to maintain high-quality care. A valuable solution could be the organization of group education. The ELENA study therefore aimed to evaluate women’s satisfaction about (group) education and treatment, their knowledge about GDM and whether the diagnosis is associated with feelings of depression and anxiety.

Methods: This monocentric prospective and observational cohort study enrolled 175 women with a recent diagnosis of GDM. GDM was diagnosed by a universal two-step screening strategy with a glucose challenge test and diagnosis of GDM was based on the 2013 WHO criteria. Participants attended two education sessions, with the first session offered as a group education (max. 6 participants) for Dutch-speaking women. An individual follow-up session was planned within two weeks. Participants completed questionnaires before and after the education measuring sociodemographic characteristics, knowledge about GDM, satisfaction about education and treatment, and feelings of depression and anxiety.

Main results: Of all participants, 86 received their first education session in group and 89 received an individual session. Patients were overall satisfied with the content and duration of both the first and second session and this was generally not different between women who received education in group or individually. 97.7% was very confident in the given advice and 59.1% thought the advice was not too strict. Moreover, knowledge of participants about their condition considerably improved after education was given and this was generally not different between women who received education in group or individually. Feelings of depression were apparent in 27.1% of all participants prior to the education, but declined to 20.2% afterwards (P=0.124). With regard to the STAI-6 questionnaire on anxiety, the median total score decreased significantly from 12 (10–14) at the start of the first education session to 11 (8–13) at the end of the second education session (P<0.0001). 90.5% of all women receiving group education were satisfied with the group size and 77.4% found that group education fulfilled their expectations. The most frequently reported advantages of group education were ‘learning from the questions of others’ (77.4%) and ‘learning from the experience of others’ (52.4%).

Conclusion: Women diagnosed with GDM were overall satisfied with (group) education and had a better understanding of their condition after education. Group education could therefore be a valuable alternative to offset many practical problems associated with the increase in GDM prevalence and it appears to be an added value in the treatment of women with GDM.