Getting COVID — even a mild case — increases diabetes risk, study finds. What to know
Catching COVID-19 can heighten a person’s chance of getting a diabetes diagnosis afterward — even if the infection didn’t result in hospitalization, according to a new study.
The research comes two years after a pandemic was declared and joins a growing body of studies seeking to understand the coronavirus’ long-term health effects. Already, roughly 37 million people in the U.S. are living with diabetes, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
After a COVID-19 infection, a person’s risk of developing type 2 diabetes is about 28% higher compared with those who haven’t been sick with the virus, the new study published March 16 in Diabetologia, the journal of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes, found.
Type 2 diabetes affects roughly 90-95% of people with diabetes, typically adults, while type 1 diabetes affects about 5% of those with the condition, typically first diagnosed in kids and teens, according to Johns Hopkins University.
The study examined medical records of 8.8 million patients in Germany between March 2020 and January 2021, including 35,865 adults who had COVID-19 during that time, the research said.
“New-onset hyperglycaemia and insulin resistance have been reported in patients with coronavirus disease-2019 (Covid-19) without history of diabetes,” study authors from Heinrich Heine University in Düsseldorf, Germany, and health information database company IQVIA, write. Both are signs of diabetes.
It was discovered that those under the age of 18 are more likely to get a diabetes diagnosis at least one month after a COVID-19 infection, according to CDC research published in January, McClatchy News reported.
More on the research
In the March study, researchers examined medical records of millions of adult patients who saw 1,171 physicians’ practices across Germany. Specifically, the data came from the Disease Analyzer health care database owned by IQVIA in Frankfurt.
Then, researchers compared nearly 36,000 patients who had COVID-19 but weren’t hospitalized with a matched control group of patients who had acute upper respiratory tract infections but not COVID-19, according to the research. Of both groups, the average age was roughly 42 and 45.6% of patients were women.
Mild COVID-19 without hospitalization can still make someone really sick with symptoms and even potentially bedridden for about a week or more, according to Healthline.
The rise in type 2 diabetes incidences for those who had COVID-19 during the study period, about 10 months, “persisted” the entire time and occurred while patients were recovering from the virus, researchers wrote.
Specifically, those who tested positive for COVID-19 showed an increase in getting diagnosed with diabetes — 15.8 cases per 1,000 people per year — compared with those who didn’t test positive for COVID-19 but had an acute upper respiratory infection — 12.3 cases per 1,000 people per year, according to the study.
This means there was a 28% increase in type 2 diabetes risk for those who had the virus.
Some study limitations included how there was a lack of data on COVID-19 hospitalizations as well as body mass index data, authors note.
It’s common for adults who are overweight to receive a diabetes diagnosis, according to Johns Hopkins University.
Additionally, authors acknowledge “the incidence of type 1 diabetes was not investigated due to the small number of cases.”
They call for further research on the connection between COVID-19 and diabetes.
“If confirmed, these results support the active monitoring of glucose dysregulation after recovery from mild forms” of COVID-19, the study concludes.
The work was conducted months before the omicron variant was discovered, which is spreading in several countries worldwide, including the “stealth omicron” BA.2 subvariant, McClatchy News reported.
More on diabetes
Those who have diabetes are already more likely to be seriously affected by COVID-19, according to the American Diabetes Association. However, the chance of severity may be lowered if “diabetes is well-managed.”
Still, it’s unknown if those with diabetes are more likely to catch the virus, the association says, because “there is not enough data.”
COVID-19 could cause someone to develop diabetes because “experts have found that the virus that causes COVID-19 can directly attack insulin-producing structures in the pancreas,” according to Harvard Medical School.
“First, (COVID-19) may directly damage pancreatic beta cells, the ones that produce insulin, reducing their ability to make enough insulin to keep blood sugars controlled. Second, as the virus replicates in the pancreas, it also can damage the cells that directly surround the beta cells, which are needed for proper insulin release,” according to an October release from Harvard. “Third, the virus also seems to reprogram surviving cells, making them malfunction, which can wreak havoc with blood sugar regulation.”
The CDC says signs of diabetes include:
frequent urination
increased thirst
increased hunger
weight loss
tiredness or fatigue
stomach pain
nausea or vomiting
The agency says that type 2 diabetes can “often take several years to develop,” and “some people don’t notice any symptoms at all.”
Specific risk factors for type 2 diabetes include being prediabetic; being overweight; being older than 45; having a close family member who has type 2 diabetes; not getting enough exercise and more, according to the CDC.
To prevent the condition, the agency advises eating healthy and staying active.
This story was originally published March 17, 2022 at 12:57 PM with the headline "Getting COVID — even a mild case — increases diabetes risk, study finds. What to know."
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