Study Finds New Risk for Snoring Pregnant Women
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A new study from researchers at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine has found that women who reported frequent snoring during their pregnancy were more likely to develop gestational diabetes—a condition than can cause health problems for the mother and baby. The study also found pregnancy increases the likelihood that a woman will snore.
This is the first study to report a link between snoring and gestational diabetes.
For the study, 189 healthy women completed a sleep survey at the time of enrollment (six to 20 weeks gestation) and in the third trimester. Pregnant women who were frequent snorers had a 14.3 percent chance of developing gestational diabetes, while women who did not snore had a 3.3 percent chance. Even when researchers controlled for other factors that could contribute to gestational diabetes such as body mass index, age and race and ethnicity, frequent snoring was still associated with the disease.
Principal investigator Francesca Facco, MD, a fellow at the Feinberg School, presented her findings at the SLEEP 2009 23rd Annual Meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies June 11.