Self-Rated Health and Health Care Use Among Women With Histories of Gestational Diabetes Mellitus

OBJECTIVE

To examine self-rated health and health care utilization among women with a history of gestational diabetes mellitus (hGDM).

RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS

This study was a cross-sectional analysis of the 2006 National Health Interview Survey of parous women with (n = 370) and without (n = 6,695) hGDM.

RESULTS

Women with hGDM reported fair or poor health status and ≥10 office visits in the past year more frequently than women without hGDM. The higher prevalence of obesity in hGDM women accounted for their poorer self-rated health after adjustment for other demographic factors. Whereas the association between hGDM and more frequent office visits was reduced after adjustment for demographic factors including health insurance, hGDM was still associated with a lower odds of contact with a mental health professional.

CONCLUSIONS

Because of obesity, women with hGDM have poorer self-rated health than women without hGDM. Contact with mental health providers was reduced compared with women without hGDM.Self-rated health can act as a global summary measure of health and has been found to correlate with mortality (1) and health care use (2) independent of chronic disease. Studies that examine self-rated health among women with a history of gestational diabetes mellitus (hGDM) conflict (3–6), and health care use among hGDM women has not been reported. Women with hGDM may have poorer self-rated health than women without hGDM because of their poorer socioeconomic status (7), greater prevalence of obesity (7), and/or greater prevalence of postpartum depression (5). Therefore, we sought to determine whether women with hGDM had poorer self-rated health than parous women without hGDM, whether any differences persisted after adjustment for demographic factors and consideration of BMI and mental health distress, and whether hGDM women had different patterns of health care use than women without hGDM.