Diabetes and Women's Health (DWH)
The Diabetes and Women’s Health (DWH) study, sponsored by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development (NICHD), is a study investigating factors (medical, lifestyle, genetic and their interactions) that determine the risk of subsequent development of type 2 diabetes among women who had Gestational Diabetes Mellitus (GDM), a common pregnancy complication. The study, which is led by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), is being conducted in the US and Denmark among study participants in the Nurses’ Health Study II (NHS-II) and the Danish National Birth Cohort (DNBC). The study will investigate pregnancy history, body weight, lifestyle factors (e.g., diet, and exercise), biochemical markers (in blood, urine and toenails) and genetic (DNA) factors and their interactions in relation to the risk of developing type 2 diabetes and complications. The DWH study will invite participants with a history of GDM from these US and Danish studies. Findings from previous studies indicate that women who had diabetes in pregnancy experienced a substantially increased risk for type 2 diabetes after pregnancy and are regarded as a high risk population for type 2 diabetes.
Approximately 5,670 eligible women with a history of Gestational Diabetes Mellitus (GDM) from two cohorts of women across the US and throughout Denmark. The retrospective cohort study design will utilize prospective and longitudinally collected historic data from 10 years of follow up and capture additional prospective data over 4 years.
Centers: Two centers located at Harvard School of Public Health in collaboration with Brigham and Women’s Hospital in the U.S. and the Statens Serum Insitut (SSI) in collaboration with investigators at The Danish National State Hospital – Rigshopitalet, Copenhagen University, and University of Aarhus in Denmark. These two centers represent the two participating cohorts from the Nurses’ Health Study II (NHSII) and The Danish National Birth Cohort (DNBC).