Wellington, Jan 12 NZPA - Two Auckland health experts have teamed up to study gestational diabetes and how the illness differs among ethnic groups.

AUT professor of nutrition Elaine Rush and National Women's Pregnancy Diabetes Clinic physician Janet Rowan are following children whose mothers suffered gestational diabetes to see how treatment, diet and physical activity can alter the child's risk of becoming obese.

Newborns exposed to gestational diabetes were shown to have greater fat mass, body fat percentage and skin fold thickness than those with glucose tolerant mothers, Prof Rush said.

They were also more likely to become obese and develop type2 diabetes as teenagers or adults, she said.

"In effect a cyclical relationship could develop, where obese and diabetic mothers give birth to infants who become obese and develop diabetes before childbearing years, only to pass it on to their offspring."

Prof Rush said the study's early findings indicated some "stark differences" between some ethnic groups, including Indian, Maori and Pacific Island populations who tend to have higher rates of gestational diabetes.

Data from Auckland's National Women's Hospital in 2008 showed gestational diabetes was diagnosed in about 16 percent of Indian, 10 percent of Asian, and 6 percent of Pacific Island and Maori women, compared to 3 percent of New Zealand European women.

The number of women diagnosed with the illness has doubled in the last 10 years, Dr Rowan said.

"With almost one in five Indian women presenting with gestational diabetes in Auckland alone, we are sure to feel the effects of this for generations to come."

Reducing the amount of sugar going to a foetus may help to reduce the likelihood of the child becoming obese and developing diabetes, Dr Rowan said.

"The association of gestational diabetes with pregnancy complications and later risks of type2 diabetes in the mother is well-recognised, however, the potential long-term implications for the offspring deserves better recognition."

The experts' research aims to address those long-term implications.

"Our findings join a growing body of evidence that the environment an individual is exposed to early in life can alter their long-term health and risk of disease."

NZPA