COVID-19 linked to a higher risk of diabetes for at least 1 year
COVID-19 patients face an elevated risk of diabetes that lasts well beyond their initial infection, according to a new study published in The Lancet: Diabetes & Endocrinology. These findings suggest that diabetes is yet another possible symptom clinicians should look for in patients with long COVID-19.
“Although diabetes and other glycometabolic abnormalities have been widely reported during the acute phase of COVID-19, less is known about the risk and burden of diabetes and related outcomes in the post-acute phase of COVID-19,” wrote co-authors Yan Xie, MPH, and Ziyad Al-Aly, MD, of the Veterans Affairs St. Louis Health Care System.
The two researchers examined a U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs database, focusing on more than 181,000 participants with a positive COVID-19 diagnosis from March 2020 to September 2021. All patients survived for at least 30 days after their diagnosis.
The study also used data from a contemporary control group of more than 4.1 million patients and historical control group of more than 4.2 million patients. Patients with any history of diabetes were excluded from the analysis altogether.
Overall, the group found COVID-19 was associated with a 40% higher risk of developing diabetes within 12 months. This led to 13.46 excess cases of diabetes per 1,000 people. COVID-19 was also linked to an 85% higher of needing antihyperglycemic medications, which led to 12.35 excess patients needing these medications per 1,000 people.
In addition, a patient’s risk of diabetes or requiring antihyperglycemic medications appeared to increase depending on how severe their symptoms were during that initial acute phase of COVID-19.
“The risks and burdens were evident among those who were non-hospitalized during the acute phase of the infection and increased according to the severity of the acute infection as proxied by the care setting (non-hospitalized, hospitalized, and admitted to intensive care),” the authors wrote. “Taken together, current evidence suggests that diabetes is a facet of the multifaceted long COVID syndrome and that post-acute care strategies of people with COVID-19 should include identification and management of diabetes.”
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Michael has more than 18 years of experience as a professional writer and editor. He has written at length about cardiology, radiology, artificial intelligence and other key healthcare topics.