Translating Healthy Living Messages to Postpartum Women and Their Partners After Gestational Diabetes (GDM): Body Habitus, A1C, Lifestyle Habits, and Program Engagement Results From the Families Defeating Diabetes (FDD) Randomized Trial

Purpose: The Families Defeating Diabetes intervention evaluated a postpartum healthy living program for women with recent gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM).

Design: Randomized controlled trial.

Setting: Tertiary centers in London, Calgary, and Victoria, Canada.

Participants: Women with GDM and partners; 46% of eligible maternal participants agreed to participate.

Intervention: Interventional (INT) participants received a healthy living seminar at 3 months; access to a walking group/Website; biweekly e-mails. Control (CON) participants received a contemporary postpartum diabetes prevention handout.

Measures: Maternal, partner, and offspring demographics at baseline, 3, and 12 months.

Analysis: Percentages of women losing ≥7% of postpartum weight were compared by χ² testing; body habitus comparisons by analysis of covariance (ANCOVA); maternal A1C comparisons by unpaired t tests; participant outcome associations by Pearson correlation coefficients.

Results: Maternal participants were 170 (89 INT and 81 CON) with 63 partners (30 INT and 33 CON); 103 (73 maternal; 30 partners) were lost to follow-up; 57% of maternal participants completed 12 months; 33% INT women (n = 50) lost ≥7% weight versus 25% CON women (n = 47), P = .43. Interventional participant results did not correlate with accession of study elements. Maternal completion was significantly associated with partner involvement, breastfeeding, higher income, and education. Paternal weights correlated significantly with maternal and offspring weights.

Conclusion: Families Defeating Diabetes outcomes were not significantly different for INT maternal or paternal participants versus CON participants. Secondary outcomes of future value included statistically significant positive associations between paternal participation, socioeconomic indicators, and maternal study completion, significant correlations between maternal, paternal, and offspring weights as well as insights into study component engagement.