Health

Patients with COVID-19 more likely to develop new diabetes

A review involving a total of approximately 40 million participants showed a statistically significant positive association between infection with COVID-19 and the risk of type 1 or type 2 diabetes.

After SARS-CoV-2 infection, individuals of all ages and genders had increased incidence and relative risk (RR) of being diagnosed with either disease. type 1 diabetes (T1D) or type 2 diabetes (T2D), according to a review published in BMCmedicine.

According to the authors, this suggests that clinicians should pay particular attention to new-onset T1D or T2D in patients in the first three months after COVID-19.

To arrive at these findings, the authors performed a systematic review and meta-analysis of nine studies involving approximately 40 million participants and approximately 200,000 reported diabetes cases. All studies were published by his June 10, 2022.

They found the overall incidence of post-COVID-19 diabetes to be 15.53 cases per 1000 person-years (95% CI, 7.91-25.64).

The overall RR for diabetes after COVID-19 infection was increased (RR, 1.62; 95% CI, 1.45-1.80). The specific RR for T1D was 1.48 (95% CI, 1.26-1.75) and for T2D was 1.70 (95% CI, 1.32-2.19) when compared with COVID-19-uninfected patients.

For patients with non-identified type of diabetes with COVID-19, the RR was 1.50 (95% CI, 0.87-2.58).

RR was fairly consistent across all age groups, 1.72 (1.19-2.49) in patients <18 years, 1.63 (1.26-2.11) in patients >18 years, and 1.68 (1.22-2.30) in patients >65 years ) was.

RR was approximately 2 in each gender group. The RR for male patients was 2.08 (1.27-3.40) and for female patients was 1.99 (1.47-2.80).

Furthermore, the risk of diabetes was highest in the first 3 months after SARS-CoV-2 infection (RR, 1.95; 1.85-2.06), and patients with severe COVID-19 were at higher risk (RR, 1.67; 1.25-2.23). Diabetes after infection.

The authors say that these results remain significant even after considering possible unmeasured confounding factors.

They also wrote that similar results have been reported in patients with other viral infections, with an increased incidence of diabetes compared with uninfected patients.

“Our subgroup analysis showed a 1.2-fold higher risk of developing diabetes after COVID-19 compared to patients with other upper respiratory tract infections, and a 1.2-fold higher risk of developing diabetes after COVID-19 compared to the general population. 1.82 times higher than normal,” said the authors. Said. “This raises the need for clinicians to pay attention to her patient’s glucose metabolism after the acute phase of her COVID-19.”

Although this is currently reported to be the largest and most extensive analysis of diabetes incidence in COVID-19 patients, it has several notable limitations.

First, all included studies used a retrospective design, using a large electronic medical database to construct cohorts and define health characteristics based on validated definitions. This suggests that the possibility of misclassification bias cannot be ruled out. Second, some studies used contemporary controls. This means that some patients in the control group may be infected with SARS-CoV-2, but were not tested. Third, the studies were conducted in different countries and different regions within the same country. Finally, study designs were heterogeneous.

“The number of prospective cohort studies available on this topic is still small, so more high-quality studies are needed to confirm the results,” the authors said.

reference

Zhang T, Mei Q, Zhang Z, et al. Newly diagnosed diabetes risk after COVID-19: a systematic review and meta-analysis. BMC MedPublished online November 15, 2022. doi:10.1186/s12916-022-02656-y

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Patients with COVID-19 more likely to develop new diabetes