Preventive Health Services in Reproductive-Aged Women with Diabetes Mellitus: A Scoping Review

Diabetes mellitus (DM), both type 1 (T1DM) and type 2 (T2DM), complicates about 1% of pregnancies in the US. Current research frequently focuses on the effects of DM on pregnancy outcomes, overlooking the opportunity to examine a woman’s health prior to pregnancy despite the significance of pre-conception health on pregnancy outcomes.

Recognizing the importance of a woman’s overall health, and not just the period in which a woman is pregnant, we set out to explore whether women with DM received recommended preventive health services at the same rates as women without DM. PubMed, Web of Science Core Collection, and Cochrane Library of Systematic Reviews and Trials were searched using search terms related to four areas of preventive health services for women with T1DM or T2DM: contraceptive counseling, age-appropriate cancer screening, pre-conception counseling, and recommended sexually transmitted infection (STI) screening.

Most studies confirmed that women with DM consistently received less contraception management or contraception counseling compared to women without DM. Women with DM also had lower rates of breast and cervical cancer screening. Studies of pre-conception counseling suggest low rates of counseling provided to women with DM. No studies comparing STI screening rates between women with and without DM could even be identified. We also identified a paucity of evidence-based interventions directed at expanding the provision of these preventive services to women with DM.

Differences exist in the provision of recommended preventive health services between women with and without DM, and there are also research gaps regarding well-woman preventive care in women with DM.

Open Science Framework—https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/3MV6Q