Metformin use and preeclampsia risk in women with diabetes: a two-country cohort analysis
Gordon H, Salim N, Tong S, Walker S, De Silva M, Cluver C, Mehdipour P, Hiscock R, Sutherland L, Doust A, Bergman L, Wik...
Summary
Almost one in five Australian women will have pre-existing or gestational diabetes during pregnancy. Maternal diabetes is associated with adverse short-term outcomes for neonates; and yet the school-age educational and developmental outcomes for the offspring of affected pregnancies remain poorly understood. Additionally, there remain under-researched alternative or adjunct treatments for diabetes in pregnancy beyond insulin. These are significant gaps in the literature.
We have linked pregnancy and birth outcomes for all children born in Victoria between 2009 and 2020 with standardised Australia-wide developmental assessments, and using this cohort, we aim to assess whether diabetes in pregnancy is associated with developmental vulnerability on the Australian Early Development Census (AEDC) at ages 4-6 years, or differences in educational outcomes on the Grade 3 NAPLAN, compared with diabetes-unexposed peers.
Additionally, using population-level databases from Sweden, Scotland and Victoria, Australia, this project seeks to investigate the role of metformin as a potential therapeutic in preeclampsia prevention and assess whether metformin use in pregnancy is associated with an altered risk of developmental vulnerability among exposed offspring during primary school.
