Gestational Diabetes Linked to Impaired Lung Function and Higher Asthma Risk in Children: Study
A new study published in the Annals of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology found that in-utero exposure to gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is associated with poorer respiratory outcomes in children.
GDM is a form of diabetes that develops during pregnancy and is already known to affect both maternal and infant health. While earlier research has suggested a connection between GDM and childhood asthma, this study was carried out to understand how this pregnancy condition might influence children’s lung development more broadly.
The study followed nearly 900 mother–child pairs from a large pregnancy cohort that tracked births between 2007 and 2011. This research assessed children at ages 8 to 9, using detailed medical records to confirm which mothers had GDM and performing standardized lung function tests (spirometry) on participating children.
About 6% of the pregnancies in the study were affected by GDM. The research measured several indicators of lung function, including forced expiratory volume in the first second (FEV1), forced vital capacity (FVC), the ratio between the 2, and forced expiratory flow between 25% and 75% of vital capacity (FEF25–75). This study also gathered information from parents about whether children currently experienced wheezing or had been diagnosed with asthma.
Overall, lung function levels in the study population tended to fall slightly below average standardized reference values. However, children who had been exposed to GDM in the womb showed noticeably poorer performance on specific lung measures. After accounting for factors like maternal health and child characteristics, these children had significantly lower FEV1 scores and markedly reduced FEF25–75 values, which reflect airflow in the smaller airways.
The children exposed to GDM were more than 3-times as likely to have current asthma compared to those whose mothers did not develop gestational diabetes. This elevated risk was seen even though other lung capacity measures, such as overall forced vital capacity, did not differ significantly between the two groups. Overall, the findings suggest that exposure to gestational diabetes may subtly alter how children’s lungs develop, particularly affecting airflow rather than total lung size.
Source:
Adgent, M. A., Gebretsadik, T., Moore, P. E., Hartman, T. J., Nickelberry, M., Zhang, X., Zhao, Q., Bush, N. R., ScD, K. Z. L., Wright, R. J., & Carroll, K. N. (2025). Gestational diabetes and childhood lung function at age 8-9 years in a diverse US cohort. Annals of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology: Official Publication of the American College of Allergy, Asthma, & Immunology. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anai.2025.12.006
