Probiotics and dietary counselling contribute to glucose regulation during and after pregnancy: a randomised controlled trial

Study answer

What this study found

The combined dietary counselling plus probiotic intervention improved glucose regulation during pregnancy and after delivery. Baseline-adjusted glucose was lower with diet/probiotics than with diet/placebo and control/placebo in pregnancy (4.45, 4.60, and 4.56 mmol/L; P=0.025) and postpartum (4.87, 5.01, and 5.02 mmol/L; P=0.025). The intervention also reduced the odds of elevated glucose concentration during pregnancy (OR 0.31, 95% CI 0.12, 0.78; P=0.013). Overall, the authors concluded that dietary counselling with probiotics can improve glucose control in a healthy pregnant population and…

Study & population

Randomized controlled trial in normoglycaemic pregnant women in early gestation recruited in Turku, Finland.

Intervention

Women in the active arm received oral probiotic capsules containing Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG (ATCC 53 103) and Bifidobacterium lactis Bb12, 10^10 colony-forming units/day each.

Key limitation

The active intervention was tested in a relatively small, specific population of healthy Caucasian pregnant women from one region in Finland, which limits generalizability.

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Original abstract