Funding outcome

Diabetes during pregnancy can cause complications to both the mother and baby. Complications for the mother include high blood pressure during pregnancy, post partum hemmorrhaging and increases likelihood of a ceasarian section, and for a newborn it can result in a baby that is large for gestational age, that has neonatal hypoglycemia and a baby that has an increased risk for being admitted to the neonatal intensive unit. Long term outcomes for the child have also been found to be associated with diabetes during pregnancy such as an increased risk for obesity and developing type 2 diabetes later in life. Indigenous populations across Alberta have a higher incidence of type 2 diabetes then non-indigenous people in Alberta, and previous research has found that the incidence rate of gestational diabetes among the First Nations people in Alberta is higher then non-Indigenous people in Alberta. However, there has been no previous research conducted to examining the burden of diabetes among Metis women or specific health outcomes. This project will utilize administrative health databases to conduct a restrospective cohort study examining the prevalence of diabetes during pregnancy, maternal outcomes and neonatal outcomes of Metis people in Alberta. The study population are all live births(.:: 22 weeks gestation) that occurred in Alberta between April 1, 2006 and March 31, 2016 identified in the Alberta Perinatal Health Program (APHP), for a Metis cohort and a non-Metis cohort. We will use APHP, the Discharge Abstract Database, Vital statistics and Alberta Physicians Claims datasets for the study. The study outcomes are the prevalence and incidence of both gestational daibetes and women that had a diabetes diagnosis pre-pregnancy, adverse maternal health outcomes (e.g., postpartum hemorrhage, pre-eclampsia, and caesarian section), as well as neonatal outcomes such as preterm birth, still birth, large for gestational age, neonatal brachia! plexus palsy, neonatal hypoglycemia, congenital anomalies and admissions to the neonatal intensive unit. We calculate annual age adjusted rates for all maternal and neonatal study outcomes as well as descriptive statistics and logistic regression models to analyse the data. This will be the first study in Canada to examine the burden of diabetes during pregnancy among Metis women. The knowledge obtained from this study can be used to assist with the planning of maternal health services for Metis women in Alberta. The results from this study will be shared with Maternal, Child and Youth strategic clinical network, and the Population, Public and Indigenous Health Strategic Clinical Network, and other important stakeholders.