Knowledge on Gestational Diabetes among Antenatal Mothers Attending Antenatal OPD

Background: Pregnancy is a period in which lot of metabolic and hormonal changes takes place. Gestational diabetes mellitus is a condition of abnormal carbohydrate metabolism with onset or first detected during pregnancy. About 1-14% of all pregnancies are complicated by Diabetes mellitus and 90% of which are gestationaldiabetes. GDM is a treatable condition and women who have adequate control on glucose level can effectively decrease the associated risks. Awareness of the condition among antenatal women will help in prevention and early diagnosis of the disease thereby prevent fetal complications and increase maternal quality of life. The present study aims to assess the level of knowledge of antenatal mothers regarding gestational diabetes mellitus and to find out the association between the knowledge level of antenatal mothers with their selected demographic variables. Methods: A descriptive design was used with a self administered structured questionnaire. Samples were selected from antenatal OPD of a tertiary care hospital using simple random sampling with a sample size of 100. Informed consent was taken. Data collected was analyzed and interpreted and inference of knowledge regarding GDM among antenatal mothers with the socio demographic variables were determined. Results: Majority (73%) of subjects were having average knowledge regarding gestational diabetes whereas 15% had good knowledge and 12% had poor knowledge.Among the subjects with average knowledge score, 53% were from the age group 25-35 yrs.45% were graduates and above, 66% were above 28 weeks of gestation.The ANOVA comparison of difference in means shows that there is no significant difference in knowledge according to the demographic variables in study group. Conclusion: The findings of present study indicate the need to enhance education to antenatal mothers attending antenatal OPDs. Knowledge about GDM among antenatal women will translate into adoption of a healthy lifestyle, better self-care, and thus prevention and early diagnosis of the disease.