Association between maternal alcohol use during pregnancy and gestational diabetes mellitus: a meta-analysis

Purpose Maternal alcohol use and gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) have been serious public health issues worldwide. This study aimed to investigate the association between maternal alcohol use during pregnancy and risk of GDM via a meta-analysis. Material and methods PubMed, ScienceDirect, and Cochrane Library databases were systematically searched up to March 25, 2020. Observational studies on associations between maternal alcohol use during pregnancy and risk of GDM were retrieved. The pooled odds ratios (ORs) and their 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for with versus without alcohol use during pregnancy were calculated using a random-effect model. The publication bias was assessed by Begg’s rank correlation test. Results A total of 7 observational studies (185,235 participants, including 8368 GDM cases) were included in this meta-analysis. Compared with women without any use of alcohol during pregnancy, the pooled OR for women with alcohol use was 0.74 (95% CI 0.50–1.10). In subgroup analysis, the pooled OR was 0.79 (95% CI 0.60–1.05) and 0.71 (95% CI 0.28–1.80), respectively, for individual study with and without adjusting for body mass index. Conclusions Our findings suggest that there is no discernible association between maternal alcohol use during pregnancy and risk of GDM. However, given other possible pregnancy complications and adverse birth outcomes induced by alcohol use, women who have been pregnant and are planning to become pregnant should quit drinking.