RESUMO
BACKGROUND: In India, women with GDM are at an increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Despite this, the rate of postnatal blood glucose monitoring is low, and the reasons are not well known. Hence, our study explored the barriers and facilitating factors associated with T2DM postnatal screening six weeks after delivery. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We conducted a qualitative study among 21 mothers with GDM in obstetrics and gynecology department, women and child hospital (WCH), JIPMER, from December 2021 to January 2022. Mothers with GDM were selected purposively between 8 and 12 weeks after delivery to explore the barriers and facilitating factors associated with postnatal screening six weeks after getting mobile call reminders and health information booklet interventions. In-depth interviews were transcribed; manual content analysis with deductive and inductive coding was done. RESULTS: We identified two themes; three categories and subcategories that illustrated barriers and five categories that illustrated facilitators to postnatal blood glucose monitoring. Lack of awareness and misconceptions about GDM, knowledge practice gap, lack of family support, and perception of health system failure by mothers with GDM were barriers to postnatal blood glucose monitoring. Concerns about health, standard advice on postnatal screening, information in health education booklet, mobile reminders, and family support were found to be facilitators. CONCLUSION: We found several barriers and facilitating factors that showed mobile call reminders and booklet interventions had improved postnatal blood glucose monitoring. Our qualitative study has strengthened the findings of the previous RCT, and it would provide more insights to develop further interventions which we must focus on improving postnatal blood glucose monitoring.
RESUMO
Background: In India, around 10% of mothers with gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) develop diabetes within months after delivery. But only 29% of them undergo blood glucose testing in the postnatal period. Our study aimed to compare the proportion of mothers with GDM who got postnatal blood glucose checked at 8 weeks among mothers who received health education booklets and mobile reminders. Methods: We conducted a randomised controlled trial among 165 mothers with GDM receiving care from a tertiary health centre between January 2020 and June 2021. Mothers with GDM in the intervention 1 arm received a health education booklet in the third trimester, those in intervention 2 arm received mobile call reminders at the fourth and fifth weeks postpartum, control arm received standard care advised in the hospital; they were followed up at 8 weeks postnatally. We used Chi-square test to compare the effectiveness of intervention and standard care. Relative risk with a 95% confidence interval was calculated to measure the strength of association. A P value <0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: A total of 161 participants (97.58%) completed the study; Out of 55 mothers with GDM in each arm, 30 (56.60%) in the booklet arm, 23 (42.59%) in the mobile reminder arm, and 13 (24.07%) in the standard care arm had undergone postnatal blood glucose monitoring at 8 weeks. There was a statistically significant difference in the postnatal blood glucose monitoring in the booklet arm (RR: 2.21 [1.35-3.64], P value <0.002) compared to the control arm, but the difference was not significant in the mobile reminder arm (1.65 [0.96-2.86], P value 0.072). Conclusion: Health education booklet and mobile call reminders effectively improved postnatal visit compliance compared to standard care. We can diagnose mothers with GDM progressing to diabetes in the postnatal period by implementing these interventions.