2016 to 2024 Saw Increase in Gestational Diabetes Rates in United States

TUESDAY, Jan. 6, 2026 (HealthDay News) — Gestational diabetes (GD) rates among first singleton live births increased overall and across most racial and ethnic groups in the United States from 2016 to 2024, according to a research letter published online Dec. 29 in JAMA Internal Medicine.

Emily L. Lam, from the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, and colleagues examined GD patterns for race and ethnicity groups between 2016 and 2024, including during and after the COVID-19 pandemic using data for all 12,617,106 U.S. residents aged 15 to 44 years with a singleton first live birth. Age-standardized GD rates per 1,000 live births were calculated for the overall population, by six primary racial and ethnic groups, and by individual ethnicities in the Hispanic and Asian groups.

The researchers found that the overall age-standardized GD rates increased from 58.2 to 79.3 per 1,000 live births between 2016 and 2024, with an average annual percentage change of 3.8 percent per year. Significant increases in GD rates were seen in all primary groups, all Asian ethnicities, and all Hispanic ethnicities except Dominican individuals. GD rates were highest among American Indian or Alaska Native, Asian (particularly Asian Indian), and Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander individuals across all study years.

“Variation in absolute rates across racial and ethnic groups was likely associated with heterogeneity in risk factor burden, health behaviors and care access, and social exposures,” the authors write.

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