Probiotic Supplement for the Prevention of Gestational Diabetes: A Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials

Background Probiotic supplements may have some potential in preventing gestational diabetes, and this meta-analysis aims to explore the efficacy of probiotic supplements to prevent gestational diabetes.Methods PubMed, EMbase, Web of science, EBSCO, and Cochrane library databases were systematically searched, and we included randomized controlled trials (RCTs) assessing the effect of probiotic supplements on the incidence of gestational diabetes mellitus. Meta-analysis was performed using the fixed-effect or random-effect model as appropriate.Results Six RCTs were finally included in the meta-analysis. Overall, compared with control intervention in pregnant women, probiotic supplementation intervention showed no obvious impact on the incidence of gestational diabetes (OR=0.68; 95% CI=0.39 to 1.20; P=0.18), fasting plasma glucose (SMD=-0.05; 95% CI=-0.29 to 0.19; P=0.69), 2 h-OGTT (SMD=-0.07; 95% CI=-0.27 to 0.13; P=0.47), gestational age (SMD=0.04; 95% CI=-0.14 to 0.21; P=0.69) or preeclampsia (OR=1.22; 95% CI=0.83 to 1.78; P=0.31).Conclusions Probiotic supplementation was confirmed to have no benefits for the prevention of gestational diabetes.