Background: Uniform gestational diabetes (GDM) treatment with its increasing incidence places a significant burden on healthcare systems and pregnant women. We examined whether psychosocial factors are associated with clinical outcomes and developed a biopsychosocial model for stratifying women by their risk level.
Methods: Less successful treatment was defined as (i) poor glycemic control (GC), defined by the proportion of blood glucose measurements in the target being less than 80 % of the time, (ii) the occurrence of adverse perinatal outcomes (APOs), defined as a composite of GDM-related complications, including large-for-gestational age, neonatal hypoglycemia, jaundice, clavicle fracture, stillbirth, neonatal death. We used multiple logistic regression to examine the association with outcomes. Predictive models were developed using machine learning methods: logistic regression, random forest, support vector machine, XGBoost.
Results: Among the women included (GC: n = 470, APO: n = 477; in both samples, age = 31,0 [28,0–35,0] years, BMI = 24,7 [21,6–28,7] kg/m2, psychosocial variables were significantly associated with GC (psychological: p < 0,001; social: p = 0,028) and APOs (psychological: p < 0,001; social: p = 0,028). The biopsychosocial model achieved the highest predictive accuracy, especially using XGBoost (GC/APO: PR AUC = 0,87 / 0,81; concordance c = 0,93 / 0,91; Brier score = 0,11 / 0,14). In the GC model, variable importance decreased steeply. The most significant predictors with relative importance above 0,5 were maternal BMI, gestational age at diagnosis, empowerment for GDM management. For APOs, the decrease was more gradual. The relative importance of 0,9 exceeded empowerment for GDM, gestational age at diagnosis, age, the impact of GDM on life, self-efficacy.
Conclusion: Psychological and social variables are associated with clinical outcomes. A combination of biopsychosocial variables most accurately predicts women at higher risk for poorer GDM outcomes. We outline the next steps toward personalized care.
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