Manchester researchers recruit 500th patient to HAPO Follow-Up Study

Researchers from Central Manchester University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and The University of Manchester are currently recruiting patients to the Hyperglycaemia and Pregnancy Outcomes (HAPO) Follow-up Study.

The NIHR-supported study is a follow-up on approximately 28,000 women worldwide, who took part in the original study over 10 years ago. The aim of the study then was to help understand how blood sugar levels in pregnancy might impact on the unborn child in healthy mothers who did not have diabetes. The then pregnant mother had an Oral Glucose Tolerance test and their babies were weighed and measured a day after birth.

The Manchester study team have just recruited the 500^th mother and child to take part in the follow-up study.

Dina and her 10-year-old son Arjun from Droylsden, attended the NIHR/Wellcome Trust Manchester Clinical Research Facility (CRF) for the follow-up tests. Dina said:

It’s been an enjoyable experience for us to come here this morning. Arjun has had a glucose test, been measured and had his blood taken. We’ve been happy to support the study. I think it’s great that the researchers are looking into diabetes to see if there are ways to find a cure.

The original HAPO Study was a multi-centre, multi-cultural, observational study involving 28,000 women in 15 field centres around the world (including two from the UK: Manchester and Belfast).

The study was funded by America’s National Institute of Health and showed that mildly raised glucose levels during pregnancy (short of diabetes) are associated with increased frequency of high birth weight and fatness of the baby. It is known mainly in the offspring of mothers with diabetes, that these neonatal outcomes are risk factors for obesity and metabolic disorders in childhood and later life. The nature of these associations and the long term risk for both mother and baby with increasing levels of maternal blood glucose below those diagnostic of diabetes are not known.

The HAPO Follow-Up Study is examining this by collecting high quality standardised data on women and their children from 10 of the original 15 HAPO field centres.