Are fewer cases of diabetes mellitus diagnosed in the months after SARS-CoV-2 infection? A population-level view in the EHR-based RECOVER Program
Reddy, NV; Yeh, HC; Tronieri, JS; et al., Journal of Clinical and Translational Science
Published
March 2023
Journal
Journal of Clinical and Translational Science
Abstract
Long-term sequelae of severe acute respiratory coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection may include increased incidence of diabetes. Here we describe the temporal relationship between new type 2 diabetes and SARS-CoV-2 infection in a nationwide database. We found that while the proportion of newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes increased during the acute period of SARS-CoV-2 infection, the mean proportion of new diabetes cases in the 6 months post-infection was about 83% lower than the 6 months preinfection. These results underscore the need for further investigation to understand the timing of new diabetes after COVID-19, etiology, screening, and treatment strategies.
Authors
Neha V Reddy, Hsin-Chieh Yeh, Jena S Tronieri, Til Stürmer, John B Buse, Jane E Reusch, Steven G Johnson, Rachel Wong, Richard Moffitt, Kenneth J Wilkins, Jeremy Harper, Carolyn T Bramante; N3C and RECOVER Consortiums
Keywords
COVID-19; PASC; epidemiology; new diabetes; type 2 diabetes
Short Summary
The relationship between COVID-19 and diabetes has captured the interest of many researchers. Some studies suggest that people may be more likely to develop type 2 diabetes after having COVID. The authors of this study tried to find out whether new diagnoses of type 2 diabetes are more common after having COVID. They did this by looking at electronic health records (EHRs), which are digital medical charts that have health data like doctor visits, lab results, and other health history.
The researchers looked at the EHRs of people across the country who had COVID and were also diagnosed with type 2 diabetes within 6 months before or after having COVID. They found that the number of new diagnoses increased during the period when people had COVID, likely due to increased interaction with the healthcare system during that time. However, the average number of new diabetes diagnoses was about 83% lower in the 6 months after having COVID than in the 6 months before having COVID. This analysis could not explain whether having COVID makes people more likely to get diabetes, but it does include the unexpected finding that a diabetes diagnosis was less common months after having COVID.