United States: A study of over almost 614,000 patients in the U.S. found that young people aged 10 to 19 are literally at a higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes (T2D) after getting COVID-19 compared to other respiratory infections.
Researchers from Case Western Reserve University looked at electronic medical records to see how many kids developed T2D one, three, and six months after being infected with either COVID-19 or other respiratory illnesses between January 2020 and December 2022. The findings were actually published in JAMA Network Open.
As reported by CIDRAP, here the patient characteristics which basically includes, median age of patients: 14.9 years, female patients: 53% male patients: forty seven percent, and White: 57 precent. Among the patient and here the 50 percent had COVID, and also the other 50 percent had other respiratory illnesses.
Moreover, the effect of hospitalization, obesity didn’t shift the risk.
New-onset T2D was more likely for COVID-19 at day of infection to 1, 3, and 6 months after a COVID diagnosis compared to other infections (RR 1.55, 1.48, and 1.58). Being at high risk as well were boys and girls.
The trend was similar in the overweight or obese cohort (RR at 1, 3, and 6 months: 2.07, 2.00 and 2.27) and the hospitalised cohort (RR: 3.10, 2.74 and 2.62). Similar increase in risk was observed 3 and 6 months post infection if individuals diagnosed between diagnosis and 1 month post infection were excluded.
The researchers however pointed out that the following might be true. This increased metabolic demand could have tipped frank disease in an already vulnerable child with COVID-19, the study’s authors explained. ‘There has been recently growing interest in the autoimmune aspects of T2D and it has been documented that genetically susceptible children who have developed autoimmune attack against the Beta cells of the pancreas post COVID-19 develop corresponding antibodies.’
SARS-CoV-2 can reasonably also infect built-in human pancreatic β cells; if the program cell death occurs, then there will be an inhibition of insulin release. Yet T2D is generally recognized to be a disease of insulin resistance rather than insulin dearth, but at early stages of the disease for newly diagnosed patients, it is possible that the source may not be unambiguous or exclusively related to one pathobiologic mechanism.
Children are likely to have a more severe disease process.
Researchers said that the increased risk for new-onset T2D of COVID-19 is relatively small in scale (4.8/10,000 in general population, 17.0/10,000 in overweight or obese children), but says high stakes for many patients.
The costs are even higher when considering patients diagnosed as having T2D as children because they will face higher disease-related costs over a lifetime and In addition children may have a more severe T2D disease process than adults and the complications of T2D come even sooner in those who are diagnosed as children,” the authors said Moreover new drugs and interventions to control T2D such as weight control are more available.”