Return for Postpartum Oral Glucose Tolerance Test Following Gestational Diabetes Mellitus

Abstract

A cross-sectional study was conducted to assess the prevalence and characteristics of women who received a postpartum oral glucose tolerance test and to examine barriers as reported by women who failed to return for the test. Data were collected using a mobile phone-based short messaging service. Only 352 (81.9%) women returned for the test. Women who failed to return for the test were younger (30.1 vs 32.1, P = .003) and did not have a previous history of gestational diabetes (93.6% vs 84.9%, P = .043) compared to women who returned for the test. The commonest reasons given for not returning for the test was "Still waiting for the appointment date for the test" (37.2%), "had family/health problems" (11.5%), and "busy/no time" (10.3%). Flexible time for the test, active involvement from health care staff, and strengthening continuous care system were among the interventions needed to improve the return rate for this screening test.

Facilitators and Barriers to Post-partum Diabetes Screening Among Mothers With a History of Gestational Diabetes Mellitus–A Qualitative Study From Singapore

“…Whilst up to 18.2% of mothers screened are diagnosed with dysglycemia ( 10 ), the uptake of post-partum diabetes screening within the recommended window is suboptimal and varies widely across populations. A study conducted in England identified the uptake rate to be 17% ( 11 ), as compared to 81.9% in a Malaysian hospital ( 12 ). Unpublished data from a tertiary care institution in Singapore shows that just over half (54%) of mothers with GDM underwent post-partum diabetes screening within the recommended time frame.…”

Postpartum Glucose Testing and Prevalence of Glucose Dysregulation after Gestational Diabetes Mellitus

“…The return rate for ppOGTT in our cohort was 62.2%, which is above the average reported in most studies. In a study conducted in another South East Asian country, the reported ppOGTT rate was 81.9% [28]. However, this was based on response rates collected via short message system (SMS) from patients, rather than data obtained from actual follow-up appointments.…”

“…There was a lack of statistical significance in the other variables studied such as age, BMI, family history of diabetes, type of treatment and mode of delivery in predicting the likelihood of returning for ppOGTT. Many reasons have been cited for the poor response rates, and these include perceptions that their diabetes would resolve after delivery of the baby, interpretation that the lack of reminder to reschedule missed appointments by their healthcare provider as indicators that they are at low risk of developing diabetes, as well as unpleasantness of the OGTT [28,36].…”

Perceived Deterrence Towards Colonoscopy for Colorectal Cancer Screening among Northern Malaysia Population: A Qualitative Study

“…This theme was divided into two subthemes; time constraint and transport problem. In addition to colonoscopy, time constraint was also causing low adherence to other screening programs/tests (Brown et al, 2013;Mohd Suan, 2015;Waller et al, 2012). A tight schedule is more commonly observed among working patients.…”