ObjectiveTo systematically review the diagnosis value of glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c) in diagnosis of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM).MethodsThe diagnostic studies concerning glycosylated hemoglobin in gestational diabetes were electronically searched in EMbase, PubMed, The Cochrane Library, CNKI, WanFang Data and VIP from inception to October, 2016. Two reviewers independently screened literature, extracted data and assessed the risk of bias of included studies by QUADAS-2 standard. Meta-analysis was performed by RevMan 5.3 and Meta-Disc 1.4 software.ResultsA total of 33 studies involving 16 622 persons were included. The results of meta-analysis showed that the pooled sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value, the pooled DOR of HbA1c were 0.75 (95%CI 0.74 to 0.77), 0.91 (95%CI 0.90 to 0.91), 8.21 (95%CI 5.41 to 12.46), 0.18 (95%CI 0.11 to 0.28), 45.10 (95%CI 29.70 to 68.48), respectively. The AUC of SROC was 0.933 5. Subgroup analysis by different HbA1c measurements indicated that little variations between different measurements in sensitivity and specificity.ConclusionHbA1c in GDM diagnosis has high sensitivity and specificity. Due to the limited quality and quantity of included studies, the above results should be validated by more studies.