COVID-19 infection may increase a patient’s risk of new-onset diabetes

According to a new study published in JAMA network open. The risk of developing diabetes was also higher in unvaccinated patients.

“In the adjusted multivariate models, the risk of diagnosis of new-onset diabetes (relative to baseline) occurring after or before COVID-19 infection was significantly elevated,” the authors wrote. study. “The mechanisms contributing to the risk of post-infectious diabetes remain unclear, although persistent inflammation contributing to insulin resistance is a proposed pathway.”

Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, previous studies found that after infection, some patients were at increased risk for new-onset cardiometabolic diseases – diabetes, hypertension and hyperlipidemia.

Although the later Omicron subtype appeared to be less virulent, there was insufficient data on a person’s risk of developing cardiometabolic disease from COVID-19 infection, nor on the impact of a person’s vaccination status on their risk of developing cardiometabolic disease.

Investigators conducted the current study to answer these questions, identifying 23,709 patients who had been infected with COVID-19 at least 1 or more times. Patients were treated between March 2020 and June 2022 at Cedars-Sinai Health System in Los Angeles.

Using the codes from International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision And International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, Tenth Revisioninvestigators then studied newly reported cardiometabolic diagnoses before or after the patient’s first COVID-19 infection.

By comparing the results of cardiometabolic diagnostics with a non-COVID-19-related gold standard diagnosis, researchers observed that the rates of new-onset cardiometabolic disease and gold standard disease diagnoses were higher within 90 days of infection. compared to before.

The likelihood of developing new-onset diabetes was significantly higher after COVID-19 infection than it was before infection. Among cardiometabolic diseases, the likelihood of developing incident diabetes was highest, followed by hypertension, the index diagnosis, and then hyperlipidemia.

The investigators also linked vaccination status to the risk of developing new-onset diabetes. The data showed that the odds ratio for post-infection diabetes was 1.78 for unvaccinated people and 1.07 for vaccinated people. However, “the interaction term between vaccination status and diagnosis of diabetes was not statistically significant,” the study authors wrote in the paper.

By analyzing age, gender, or pre-existing cardiovascular risk factors, investigators found no evidence that these factors increase a person’s risk of cardiometabolic disease after COVID-19 infection. Investigators also could not link the age, gender, or timing of a person’s first COVID-19 infection to the risk of developing a new cardiometabolic diagnosis before or after the outbreak. ‘infection.

The study was limited because it used diagnostic coding, did not account for confounders, and there was not enough sample size or statistical power to test for multiple interactions.

“Further studies are needed to understand the cardiometabolic sequelae of COVID-19 and whether vaccination against COVID-19 attenuates the risk of cardiometabolic disease,” the study authors wrote in the article.

Reference

Kwan A, Ebinger J, Botting P, et al. Association of COVID-19 vaccination with the risk of incident diabetes after COVID-19 infection. JAMA network open. 2023 doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.55965. Accessed February 16, 2023.