Primary care GPs' and secondary care specialists' responses to questions relating to long-term follow-up of women who have had gestational diabetes mellitus but do not have ongoing diabetes after pregnancy
| n (%) | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Question | Primary care GPs | Secondary care specialists | P valuea |
| Do you ask the GP to recall the woman to check for diabetes?b (n = 337 specialists) | |||
| Yes | — | 246 (73.0) | |
| No | — | 79 (23.4) | |
| Don't know | — | 12 (3.6) | |
| Does your practice usually recall a woman to check if she has developed diabetes? (n = 904 GPs) | |||
| Yes | 356 (39.4) | — | |
| Not recalled, but patient is advised to come back | 316 (35.0) | — | |
| No | 162 (17.9) | — | |
| Don't know | 70 (7.7) | — | |
| If yes, how often should she be recalled? (n = 353 GPs and 246 specialists) | |||
| Annually (NICE) | 303 (85.8) | 224 (91.1) | 0.30 |
| Every 2 years | 13 (3.7) | 9 (3.7) | |
| After one year and then every 2 years (Diabetes UK) | 9 (2.6) | 3 (1.2) | |
| After one year and then every 3 years (ADA) | 17 (4.8) | 6 (2.4) | |
| Other | 11 (3.1) | 4 (1.6) | |
| Which test do you recommend to the GP?b (n = 242 specialists) | |||
| Random blood glucose | — | 15 (6.2) | |
| Fasting blood glucose | — | 168 (69.4) | |
| Glucose tolerance test | — | 33 (13.6) | |
| >1 type of test | — | 11 (4.5) | |
| Other | — | 15 (6.2) | |
| When a woman returns to see if she has developed diabetes, which test do you do? (n = 669 GPs) | |||
| Random blood glucose | 45 (6.7) | — | |
| Fasting blood glucose | 489 (73.1) | — | |
| Glucose tolerance test | 76 (11.4) | — | |
| >1 type of test | 50 (7.5) | — | |
| Other | 9 (1.3) | — | |
↵a P-value for difference between specialists and GPs using Fishers exact test.
↵b There were significant differences between responses from obstetricians and diabetologists to this question, detailed in Table 6. ADA = American Diabetes Association. NICE = National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence.