ABSTRACT 

Background: Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is influenced substantially by preconception metabolic health, making adolescence a critical window for early prevention. However, reproductive health and diabetes-related education are rarely integrated within adolescent health promotion programs.
Objective: To assess baseline knowledge, healthy lifestyle behaviours, and metabolic risk profiles as the basis for developing an integrated reproductive health and diabetes education program for the early prevention of GDM among adolescent girls.
Methods: A baseline analysis was conducted within a quasi-experimental pretest–posttest control-group study involving 48 adolescent girls aged 15–19 years from three senior/vocational high schools in Aceh Besar, Indonesia. Participants were recruited using purposive sampling. Baseline outcomes included reproductive health and diabetes knowledge, healthy lifestyle behaviours, body mass index (BMI), waist circumference, random blood glucose (RBG), and blood pressure. Associations were examined using Pearson/Spearman correlation, Mann–Whitney U and Kruskal–Wallis tests, and multiple linear regression.
Results: Mean knowledge score was 9.54 ± 3.41 of 16 (59.6%), with only 22.9% of participants classified as having good knowledge. The mean healthy lifestyle behaviour score was 55.94 ± 8.07 of 96 (58.3%), while only 4.2% achieved the good category. Metabolic risk was substantial: 62.5% had obesity (BMI ≥25 kg/m²), 80.9% had central obesity, and 44.7% had blood pressure ≥120/80 mmHg. Overall, 81.2% had at least two of six predefined preconception GDM risk factors. BMI was independently associated with RBG (B = 1.064 mg/dL per kg/m²; p = 0.023), whereas knowledge was not significantly associated with healthy lifestyle behaviours (r = 0.048; p = 0.744) or BMI (r = 0.037; p = 0.802).
Conclusion: Adolescent girls in this high-risk setting demonstrated concurrent deficits in diabetes and reproductive health knowledge, healthy lifestyle behaviours, and metabolic health, with limited evidence of a direct relationship between knowledge and health-related outcomes. These findings support an integrated intervention that extends beyond information provision to emphasize behavioural skills, self-monitoring, and early metabolic risk reduction. The baseline findings provide an empirical foundation for evaluating the effectiveness of a structured reproductive health and diabetes education program for early GDM prevention.

KEYWORDS

adolescent girls; diabetes education; gestational diabetes mellitus; metabolic risk; reproductive health; preconception prevention.

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Cite this article

Kartinazahri, Fitraniar, I., Ibrahim, N., Kurniyati, Sari, W. I. P. E., Yuniwati, C., & Yusnaini. (2026). Integrating Reproductive Health and Diabetes Education for Early Prevention of Gestational Diabetes Mellitus among Adolescent Girls: A Baseline Study in Aceh Besar, Indonesia. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF HEALTH & MEDICAL RESEARCH, 5(8), 846-854. https://doi.org/10.58806/ijhmr.2026.v5i8n15