+ Who can participate?

You would qualify for this study if your mother was followed in the Diabetes in Pregnancy Program between 1978 and 1995 while she was pregnant with you. This program closely followed nearly 500 pregnant women who were diagnosed with diabetes before pregnancy. Information was collected about how the pregnant women managed their diabetes throughout their pregnancy.

Many of our participants so far didn’t know that their mother was part of the Diabetes in Pregnancy Program, so you may be eligible without realizing it! If your mother had diabetes while she was pregnant with you, and you were born in the Cincinnati area between 1978 and 1995 you may be eligible for the TEAM Study. The best way to find out if you are eligible is to contact us and we will be happy to check and let you know if you are eligible for this study.

We hope to enroll and complete a study visit with at least 250 people eligible for our study.

If you are interested in scheduling a study visit or have any questions about the study, please fill out our contact form. We will then contact you to discuss the TEAM Study in more detail.

+ What will happen in the study?

If eligible and once enrolled in this study, you will be asked to come to Cincinnati Children’s for one in-person visit that could last up to eight hours. You will be asked to not eat or drink anything (other than water) for the 9 hours before your study visit.

During the study visit, you will be asked to:

• Fill out a questionnaire about your personal health, diet and family history
• Have your height, weight, waist and blood pressure measured
• Have your blood drawn
• Provide a urine sample
• Complete a series of critical thinking tests
• Have your body scanned using an open scanner
• Take part in heart tests to look at how blood flows through your body
• Have your feet examined

Additionally, after the study visit, we would like you to complete two “diet recall” phone calls about what you ate the day before and have you complete an online questionnaire about what types of foods you have eaten in the month after the visit.

We are interested in talking with you even if you cannot come to Cincinnati for the study visit in the near future. Please contact us to discuss options.

+ Will you/your child be paid to be in this research study?

As a TEAM Study participant you will receive up to $410 for time and effort. You will receive:

• $310 if you complete the eight-hour in-person visit
• $25 if you provide a first morning urine sample
• $50 if you complete two diet recalls over the phone after your in-person visit
• $25 if you complete the online food questionnaire one month after your in-person visit

+ Why are we doing this research?

The children of women who have diabetes while pregnant have higher chances of being overweight and having insulin resistance, diabetes, and kidney and heart problems. We still don’t know how a mother’s diabetes control at different stages of her pregnancy may affect the chances of her children having these health problems as adults. The TEAM Study has a long history that can help us learn more about this.

From 1978 to 1995, an important study called the Diabetes in Pregnancy Program closely followed nearly 500 pregnant women who were diagnosed with diabetes before pregnancy. Information was collected about how they managed their diabetes throughout their pregnancy.

In 2008, 19 children of mothers from the original Diabetes in Pregnancy Program took part in a small follow-up study, where information about their heart function, metabolic, and other health-related measures was collected. The findings from this study laid the groundwork for the current TEAM Study.

Our study is called “Level and Timing of Diabetic Hyperglycemia in utero: the Transgenerational Effect on Adult Morbidity (TEAM Study)” or the TEAM Study for short. The TEAM Study is currently being conducted at Cincinnati Children’s. In September 2017, the study started when we were awarded a five-year grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), and it will run through August 2022.

We want to learn more about the health of adults whose mothers had diabetes while pregnant with them by using existing health information, collected during pregnancy, from the women who previously participated in the Diabetes in Pregnancy Program. We will determine if there is a connection between a mother’s health while pregnant and any long-term health risks for her children as they mature.

Because everyone eligible for the TEAM Study is the child of a woman who participated in the Diabetes in Pregnancy Program, this is a unique opportunity to look at a mother’s health information during pregnancy and match it to her adult child’s current health.

+ Who is conducting this study?

We are a diverse team of researchers, physicians, and support staff from Cincinnati Children’s and other partner institutions working together to conduct the TEAM Study. Cincinnati Children’s is a nonprofit academic medical center established in 1883 and is one of the oldest and most distinguished pediatric hospitals in the United States. The Cincinnati Children’s Division of Biostatistics and Epidemiology is coordinating this study. You can learn more about our study team by visiting this website's “Meet Our Team” page.

+ What are the good things that can happen from this research?

While there is no direct benefit to you from being in this study, we hope it will help improve the health of children of women with diabetes in the future. The goal is to try to find ways to help mothers watch their health while pregnant so that their babies are healthy and stay healthy as children into adulthood. Diabetes is more common now than it was when the original diabetes in pregnancy program was happening, so it is really important to help mothers who have diabetes and their doctors better understand how their health during pregnancy impacts the health of their babies into and throughout adulthood.

+ What are the bad things that can happen from this research?

This is a “minimal risk” study, which means that the risks of participating are the same as ordinary daily life or routine doctor visits. We will discuss possible risks and discomforts in more detail with those interested in learning more about the study.