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The Benefits of Exercise and Dietary Factors to Prevent Gestational Diabetes Mellitus

A special issue of Nutrients (ISSN 2072-6643). This special issue belongs to the section "Nutrition in Women".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 15 November 2025 | Viewed by 814

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Panagiotis G. Halvatsiotis

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
2nd Propaedeutic Department of Internal Medicine, School of Medicine, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, “Attikon” University Hospital, 12461 Chaidari, Greece
Interests: diabetes mellitus; obesity; insulin resistance state; exercise; metabolism
Dr. Alexandra Bargiota

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Faculty of Medicine, School of Health Sciences, University of Thessaly, 41500 Larisa, Greece
Interests: obesity; metabolism; anti-obesity combined medications; weight loss; incretins
Dr. Nikolaos Papanas

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Diabetes Centre, 2nd Department of Internal Medicine, Democritus University of Thrace, 68100 Alexandroupolis, Greece
Interests: diabetes; diabetic foot; diabetic neuropathy
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Anastasios Tentolouris

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
First Department of Propaedeutic Internal Medicine and Diabetes Center, School of Medicine, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Laiko General Hospital, 11527 Athens, Greece
Interests: diabetes; diabetic neuropathy; diabetic foot; amputation; diabetes mellitus; pulse wave analysis; arterial stiffness; blood pressure; diabetic neuropathies; pregabalin

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is a type of diabetes first diagnosed during pregnancy, with increased morbidity and mortality for both mother and fetus. The associated hyperglycemia develops due to the reduced status of insulin sensitivity, attributed either to the increased degree of overweight/obesity of the mother or to the presence of PCO syndrome, the burdened family history and the higher age of the mother. 

Increased physical activity has been well documented to be beneficial for improving insulin sensitivity with direct regulation of various biochemical and molecular mechanisms, while supporting the loss of the excess weight of the mother. Additionally, incorporating a balanced diet, rich in nutrients, possesses a crucial role in the management of insulin resistance.

Therefore, a healthy prenatal, or early in pregnancy, lifestyle plays a significant role in the prevention of gestational diabetes mellitus, and manuscripts addressing the above subjects are welcomed for submission in this Special Issue, particularly when they combine the above-mentioned topics for the prevention of GDM development

Dr. Panagiotis G. Halvatsiotis
Dr. Alexandra Bargiota
Dr. Nikolaos Papanas
Dr. Anastasios Tentolouris
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Nutrients is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • exercise
  • gestational diabetes mellitus
  • diet
  • hyperglycemia
  • insulin resistance
  • healthy pregnancy
  • PCOS

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

12 pages, 223 KiB  
Article
Pre-Conception Physical Activity and the Risk of Gestational Diabetes Mellitus: Findings from the BORN 2020 Study
by Antigoni Tranidou, Antonios Siargkas, Ioannis Tsakiridis, Emmanuela Magriplis, Aikaterini Apostolopoulou, Georgia Koutsouki, Michail Chourdakis and Themistoklis Dagklis
Nutrients 2025, 17(11), 1832; https://doi.org/10.3390/nu17111832 - 28 May 2025
Viewed by 476
Abstract
Background/Objectives: Pre-conception health behaviors may influence the risk of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM), but evidence on the joint effects of physical activity (PA) and dietary patterns remains limited. This study investigated the associations between pre-conception PA and GDM risk and explored their [...] Read more.
Background/Objectives: Pre-conception health behaviors may influence the risk of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM), but evidence on the joint effects of physical activity (PA) and dietary patterns remains limited. This study investigated the associations between pre-conception PA and GDM risk and explored their interaction with adherence to a Mediterranean diet (MD). Methods: This analysis used data from the BORN2020 cohort, which included pregnant women in Greece (2020–2022). Pre-conception PA was assessed using the International Physical Activity Questionnaire-Short Form (IPAQ-SF), expressed as the metabolic equivalent of task (MET)-min/week and categorized into quartiles. Adherence to the MD was assessed via the Trichopoulou score and then grouped into tertiles. Multivariable logistic regression models were computed, accounting for sociodemographic and clinical covariates, including sedentary time and post-lunch nap frequency. Results: In total, 524 women were included and 13.9% (n = 73) were diagnosed with GDM. Women who developed GDM were significantly older (mean age 34.41 vs. 31.98 years, p < 0.0001), were more likely to be >35 years old (46.6% vs. 26.6%, p < 0.001), had higher pre-pregnancy BMI (median 24.6 vs. 22.7 kg/m2, p = 0.014), and were more likely to be obese (23.3% vs. 11.8%, p = 0.012). No significant association was observed between total pre-conception PA and GDM risk. Compared to the lowest PA quartile, women in the medium (aOR = 0.80, 95% CI: 0.45–1.40), high (aOR = 1.12, 95% CI: 0.52–2.39), and very high (aOR = 1.10, 95% CI: 0.50–2.38) PA quartiles showed no significant differences in GDM risk. PA, when modeled as a continuous variable, showed no significant trend (aOR = 0.99, 95% CI: 0.99–1.00; p-trend = 0.61). A joint analysis of PA and MD adherence also yielded no significant associations overall. However, in very small BMI-stratified subgroups, a low level of PA combined with very high MD adherence in normal-weight women was associated with increased GDM risk (aOR = 14.06, 95% CI: 1.55–165.54, p = 0.022), while in obese women, very high levels of PA and medium MD adherence showed a potentially protective effect (aOR = 0.006, 95% CI: 8.43 × 10−6–0.42, p = 0.048). These subgroup findings require cautious interpretation, due to the limited size of the sample set and wide confidence intervals. Conclusions: In this cohort, pre-conception PA, either alone or in combination with MD adherence, was not a reliable predictor of GDM. While our subgroup signals are hypothesis-generating, they do not yet support changes to clinical risk stratification. Future large-scale and interventional studies should investigate combined lifestyle interventions before conception to clarify the potential synergistic effects on GDM prevention. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Benefits of Exercise and Dietary Factors to Prevent Gestational Diabetes Mellitus)
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