The higher risk of diabetes was evident in people with mild or asymptomatic Covid-19 and even in people with no other risk factors for diabetes.
Covid-19 infections may increase the risk of developing diabetes for up to a year, two studies have found. Reuters reported the first study tracked 181,000 adults with Covid-19 using US Department of Veterans Affairs data for a year after recovery. Comparing their data to over 8 million people not infected with the virus, the researchers detected 13 new diabetes cases among the Covid-19 patients among every 1,000 people after 12 months than among the uninfected individuals. The Covid-19 group also had an additional 12 people per 1,000 who started taking diabetes medication.
Overall, two people out of every 100 with Covid-19 developed diabetes in the year after infection, Ziyad Al-Aly of the VA St. Louis Health Care System tweeted. Accounting for other risk factors, including the frequency with which subjects in the two groups saw their doctors, it translated to a 40% higher risk post Covid-19, Al-Aly’s team reported in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology.
The higher risk of diabetes was evident in people with mild or asymptomatic Covid-19 and even in people with no other risk factors for diabetes, Al-Aly told Reuters.
“The implications of our findings are clear,” the authors said in the study.
“In the post-acute phase of the disease, Covid-19 was significantly associated with increased risk of incident diabetes. Although the risks and burdens increased according to the severity of the acute infection (as proxied by the care setting), they were evident and not trivial among people who were not hospitalised for Covid-19 — this group represents most people with Covid-19.”
Another study of 35,865 people with Covid-19 published in Diabetologia revealed a 28% higher risk of diabetes compared to a separate group with non-Covid upper respiratory infections. Nearly all new cases in the two studies were Type 2 diabetes, which can be controlled by diet changes and weight loss. The authors of both the studies recommended that Covid-19 survivors with diabetes symptoms, such as frequent urination or excessive thirst, should seek medical attention.