The DALI study (Vitamin D and Lifestyle Intervention for Gestational Diabetes Prevention) is a project funded by the FP7 Programme of the European Union and locally by CAIBER which addressed in two clinical trials in 9 European countries different strategies for the prevention of gestational diabetes. The Sant Pau Biomedical Research Institute (IIB Sant Pau) is the only Spanish centre represented in this study that was carried out by the Endocrinology and Gynaecology and Obstetrics Services with the necessary collaboration of the Paediatrics and Biochemistry Services and the Primary Care centres. The study is led locally by Dr. Rosa Corcoy of the Endocrinology, Diabetes and Nutrition Research Group of the IIB Sant Pau, director of the Diabetes Unit of the Hospital and principal investigator of group CB06 / 01/0009 of the CIBER-BBN.
Overweight and obesity are very important problems for society and individual health due to their repercussion and frequency. In Spain, more than a third of children are obese or overweight. Pregnant women with obesity often give birth to babies with too much fat those who are most at risk of becoming obese during childhood and adolescence, thus increasing the risk of developing type 2 diabetes, among other health problems. Therefore, the prevention of overweight and obesity should begin during pregnancy or even earlier.
Obese pregnant women participating in the DALI lifestyle modification clinical trial participated in a program to improve physical activity, healthy eating, or a combination of both. These groups were compared to a control group.
This trial also measured the subcutaneous fat (skin fold) of the babies of the women who participated in the study a few hours after birth. Participants who received advice on both physical activity and healthy eating were able to gain less weight, increase their physical activity, improve their eating habits and also reduce the time they spent sitting. But most importantly, their babies had less fat at birth than the babies of women who did not participate in the lifestyle intervention. This is the first study to show that a change in a mother’s lifestyle during pregnancy can influence her baby’s fat.
During the trial, a more detailed analysis was made of what aspect of lifestyle was related to reducing babies’ fatness, and no association was found with increased physical activity or decreased weight gain, but rather with reduced time spent sitting.
So the good news is that the DALI study shows that obese women can reduce their babies’ fat by changing their lifestyle during pregnancy. Therefore, recommendations for obese pregnant women should include the importance of reducing sitting time. This may be a simpler message to adopt than increased physical activity.
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