'Gestational Diabetes Rates Surge in the US'

 Rates of gestational diabetes (GD) in the US rose every year from 2016 to 2024, with a total 36% jump in that 9-year period, new data showed.

The data, from nearly all first live singleton births recorded in the National Center for Health Statistics, also showed that GD rose among all racial and ethnic groups, but with significant differences among them.

The dramatic GD rise “likely reflects several factors including increasing prevalence of prepregnancy overweight and obesity, older maternal age at first birth, and higher rates of metabolic risk factors entering pregnancy. The COVID-19 pandemic may have further contributed to these trends through disruptions in routine preventive care, reduced physical activity, increased psychosocial stress, and weight gain during the pandemic period,” study first author Emily L. Lam, medical student at Northwestern University, Chicago, told Medscape Medical News.

Primary care clinicians “are uniquely positioned to intervene upstream of pregnancy. Optimizing cardiometabolic health prior to pregnancy, such as counseling patients on weight, nutrition, and physical activity, can help reduce the likelihood of developing gestational diabetes and promote cardiometabolic health across the life course,” Lam added.

The 12,617,106 mothers included in the study who had given birth between January 1, 2016, and December 31, 2024, had a mean age of 27 years at delivery. Just over half (52.7%) were White, 22.8% were Hispanic, 13.0% were Black, 7.4% were Asian, 0.6% were American Indian or Alaska Native, and 0.2% were Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander.Over the study period, the age-standardized GD rate rose from 58.2 per 1000 live births in 2016 to 79.3 per 1000 in 2024. The annual percentage increase was 3.8%.

The highest GD rates were among American Indian or Alaska Natives, rising from 113.2 per 1000 in 2016 to 136.7 per 1000 in 2024. Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islanders also had notably high rates, increasing from 93.8 in 2016 to 126.0 per 1000 in 2024. Those two groups also experienced the highest per-year rises, both 4.1%.

Rates among White individuals were lowest, 51.2 and 70.7 per 1000 in 2016 and 2024, respectively.

“We did expect some increase in gestational diabetes, given broader metabolic trends in the US, but the magnitude of this increase and the consistency across almost all racial and ethnic groups were striking,” Lam told Medscape Medical News.

The variation in absolute rates across racial and ethnic groups “was likely associated with heterogeneity in risk factor burden, health behaviors and care access, and social exposures,” Lam and colleagues wrote in their research letter, published online on December 29, 2025, in JAMA Internal Medicine.

She told Medscape Medical News, “Gestational diabetes is an early marker of future cardiometabolic risk for both the birthing person and their offspring. Primary care clinicians play a critical role in the postpregnancy period by ensuring appropriate follow-up after a pregnancy complicated by gestational diabetes and optimizing long-term cardiometabolic health.”

Lam disclosed having no disclosures. Other authors reported receiving funding from the US National Institutes of Health.

https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/gestational-diabetes-rates-surge-us-2025a10010j7