Development of a simple tool to predict the risk of postpartum diabetes in women with gestational diabetes mellitus

Aims Women with gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) have an increased risk of diabetes postpartum. We developed a score to predict the long-term risk of postpartum diabetes using clinical and anamnestic variables recorded during or shortly after delivery. Methods Data from 257 GDM women who were prospectively followed for diabetes outcome over 20 years of follow-up were used to develop and validate the risk score. Participants were divided into training and test sets. The risk score was calculated using Lasso Cox regression and divided into four risk categories, and its prediction performance was assessed in the test set. Results Postpartum diabetes developed in 110 women. The computed training set risk score of 5 x body mass index in early pregnancy (per kg/m(2)) + 132 if GDM was treated with insulin (otherwise 0) + 44 if the woman had a family history of diabetes (otherwise 0) - 35 if the woman lactated (otherwise 0) had R-2 values of 0.23, 0.25, and 0.33 at 5, 10, and 15 years postpartum, respectively, and a C-Index of 0.75. Application of the risk score in the test set resulted in observed risk of postpartum diabetes at 5 years of 11 % for low risk scores <= 140, 29 % for scores 141-220, 64 % for scores 221-300, and 80 % for scores > 300. Conclusions The derived risk score is easy to calculate, allows accurate prediction of GDM-related postpartum diabetes, and may thus be a useful prediction tool for clinicians and general practitioners.