December 26, 2025
2 min read
Key takeaways:
- Children born to mothers diagnosed with type 2 diabetes at younger than age 25 years had increased risk for three adverse neonatal outcomes.
- More studies enrolling larger groups of pregnant women are needed.
Pregnant women with youth-onset type 2 diabetes may be more likely to have children with adverse neonatal outcomes compared with women diagnosed with type 2 diabetes in adulthood, according to a brief report published in Diabetes Care.
The researchers found that women with youth-onset diabetes, defined as onset at younger than age 25 years, were more likely than women who developed type 2 diabetes at age 25 or older to have a child born preterm, born with neonatal hyperbilirubinemia or born with a congenital cardiac anomaly.
Pregnant women diagnosed with type 2 diabetes as a child or young adult may be more likely to have children with adverse neonatal outcomes. Image: Adobe Stock
βGiven that individuals with youth-onset type 2 diabetes are more likely to have poor pregnancy outcomes associated with glucose control in early pregnancy, further efforts aimed at periconception care are needed,β Kartik K. Venkatesh, MD, PhD, FACOG, associate professor with tenure of obstetrics/gynecology and epidemiology at The Ohio State University, and director of the Ohio State University Diabetes in Pregnancy Program, told Healio. βWhether early pregnancy interventions could mitigate the risks of dysglycemia and adverse pregnancy outcomes with youth-onset type 2 diabetes requires further study.β
Kartik K. Venkatesh
Researchers collected data from 349 pregnant women with type 2 diabetes, 33% of whom had self-reported youth-onset type 2 diabetes, who received care from 2018 to 2021. Pregnancy outcomes were compared between women diagnosed with type 2 diabetes at age younger than 25 years and those diagnosed at age 25 years and older.
βYouth-onset type 2 diabetes is increasingly recognized as a more virulent and severe form of type 2 diabetes,β Venkatesh said. βIt is associated with worse lifelong cardiometabolic outcomes including kidney disease, heart disease and even death. However, despite the rise of type 2 diabetes in pregnancy in the U.S., making it one of the most frequent pregnancy complications, data about youth-onset type 2 diabetes is lacking.β
Women with youth-onset type 2 diabetes had increased risk for having a child born preterm (adjusted RR = 2.08; 95% CI, 1.33-3.28), having a child with neonatal hyperbilirubinemia (aRR = 1.84; 95% CI, 1.13-2.99) and giving birth to a child with a congenital cardiac anomaly (aRR = 2.5; 95% CI, 1.01-6.17) compared with those diagnosed with type 2 diabetes at age 25 years and older. There were no other differences in maternal or neonatal outcomes between the two groups.
Venkatesh said more studies enrolling larger groups of women with type 2 diabetes are needed to confirm the findings.
βFurther data about youth-onset type 2 diabetes in pregnancy and interventions that can be used to improve outcomes for this high-risk group are needed,β Venkatesh added.
For more information:
Kartik K. Venkatesh, MD, PhD, FACOG, can be reached at kartik.venkatesh@osumc.edu; or on LinkedIn @KartikVenkatesh.
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