Effect of exercise interventions on glycemic control in women with gestational diabetes mellitus: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
Jihoo Her, Myung-Haeng Hur
PMID 41090267WHAT IT FOUND
Exercise lowered fasting glucose, 2-hour post-meal glucose, and HbA1c in pregnant women with gestational diabetes.
The pooled studies were very inconsistent, so exact exercise prescription remains uncertain.
Key findings
01In 12 meta-analysed randomised trials, exercise reduced fasting glucose by 0.47 mmol/L compared with routine care.
02Exercise also reduced 2-hour post-meal glucose by 0.62 mmol/L and HbA1c by 0.39% compared with routine care.
03For fasting glucose, differences between exercise types were not statistically significant; for 2-hour post-meal glucose, differences between exercise types were statistically significant.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The trials varied widely, so the pooled results are hard to apply to a patient. Many included studies did not report enough exercise details, so it is unclear which exact programme produced the effects. Risk of bias was not low in all studies, and missing outcome data was a common concern. The largest apparent effects appeared in studies with unreported exercise details, so those effects cannot be trusted as a prescription. The paper only looked at glucose outcomes; it did not analyse maternal or baby outcomes.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read the pooled reductions as proof that a specific exercise dose is best. The studies were very heterogeneous, and the largest effects came from trials that did not report enough exercise details to know what was done.