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World J Diabetes. Jul 25, 2015; 6(8): 1033-1044
Published online Jul 25, 2015. doi: 10.4239/wjd.v6.i8.1033
Exercise guidelines for gestational diabetes mellitus
Cliantha Padayachee, Jeff S Coombes
Cliantha Padayachee, Jeff S Coombes, Physical Activity and Health, the School of Human Movement Studies and the Centre for Research on Exercise, the University of Queensland, St Lucia QLD 4072, Australia
Author contributions: Padayachee C and Coombes JS equally contributed to this paper.
Conflict-of-interest statement: Both authors have submitted conflict of interest statements and declare: no support from any organisation for the submitted work; no financial relation with organisation that might have interest in the submitted work in the previous three years; no other relationships or activities that could appear to have influenced the submitted work. See attached documents for statements from each author.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Jeff S Coombes, PhD, Physical Activity and Health, the School of Human Movement Studies and the Centre for Research on Exercise, the University of Queensland, Blair Drive, St Lucia QLD 4072, Australia. jcoombes@hms.uq.edu.au
Telephone: +61-7-33656767 Fax: +61-7-33656877
Received: August 28, 2014
Peer-review started: August 28, 2014
First decision: December 17, 2014
Revised: January 19, 2015
Accepted: April 27, 2015
Article in press: April 29, 2015
Published online: July 25, 2015
Processing time: 340 Days and 17.8 Hours
Abstract

The prevalence of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is increasing worldwide. This disease has many detrimental consequences for the woman, the unborn foetus and child. The management of GDM aims to mediate the effects of hyperglycaemia by controlling blood glucose levels. Along with pharmacology and dietary interventions, exercise has a powerful potential to assist with blood glucose control. Due to the uncertainty of risks and benefits of exercise during pregnancy, women tend to avoid exercise. However, under adequate supervision exercise is both safe and beneficial in the treatment of GDM. Therefore it is vital that exercise is incorporated into the continuum of care for women with GDM. Medical doctors should be able to refer to competently informed exercise professionals to aid in GDM treatment. It is important that exercise treatment is informed by research. Hence, the development of evidence-based guidelines is important to inform practice. Currently there are no guidelines for exercise in GDM. This review aims to assess the efficacy of exercise for the management of GDM in order to establish an exercise prescription guideline specific to the condition. It is recommended that women with GDM should do both aerobic and resistance exercise at a moderate intensity, a minimum of three times a week for 30-60 min each time.

Keywords: Gestation; Pregnancy; Glucose; Physiology; Guidelines; Physical; Activity

Core tip: Exercise has been proven to be beneficial in improving pregnancy outcomes in women with gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM). However, there is currently no exercise guidelines published for this population. A review into research outcomes of exercise in pregnant women with and without gestation diabetes as well as guidelines pertaining to type 2 diabetes mellitus has been conducted. This review has shaped the first guidelines pertaining to exercise for GDM management.