New data shows that 5% of new cases of diabetes could be linked to a COVID-19 infection.
According to a new study published in the JAMA Network Open medical journal, people who were hospitalized for COVID-19 appeared to be at the greatest risk of a subsequent diabetes diagnosis.
- Researchers looked at the medical records of 629,935 people in British Columbia who took a PCR test for COVID-19.
- They found that those who tested positive were more likely to be diagnosed with type 1 or type 2 diabetes in the weeks and months that followed.
- They estimate that 3-5% of the new diagnoses were attributable to COVID-19.
- Across the general population, the connection between a positive COVID test and new diabetes diagnosis was only apparent among men, possibly because of gender-specific immune responses to COVID-19.
- While most of the people in the study were diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, which is more common in adults, separate research has found that COVID-19 infection is likely to be associated with type 1 diabetes in children.
- Dr. Caroline Ponmani identified a 17% increase in new-onset diabetes cases among children in the U.K. and Ireland during the first year of the pandemic.
