A connection has been uncovered between COVID-19 and Type 2 diabetes in children and teenagers, according to researchers at the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine in Cleveland.
The study, published in the JAMA Network Open medical journal, relied on electronic health records of more than 600,000 patients, which were accessed through a data analytics platform.
While the records do not identify the patients, they include other details such as geographic areas, age, race and ethnicity.
It found that during the first six months after a COVID diagnosis, patients between the ages of 10 and 19 were 50% more likely to develop Type 2 diabetes compared to their peers who had a different kind of respiratory infection, such as the flu.
“Pediatric patients aged 10 to 19 years without preexisting diabetes were eligible for inclusion,” according to the study.
“People with diabetes have a lot of complications down the road, and their medical costs are, yearly, more than twice that of people who don’t have diabetes,” said the study’s lead author, Pauline Terebuh.
Researchers said their findings “add an important component to consideration of the risks and benefits of preventing COVID infection in children.”
“If kids at a younger age are getting diagnosed with diabetes, they’re going to carry that with them through their lives,” Terebuh told WTOP. “Any contribution to increasing that risk for our kids, I think, is a really big deal.”
The risk of developing Type 2 diabetes after COVID was even higher for patients who were obese, the study found.
“We need to continue to think about not only what the risk is when you catch it, but what the risk might be down the road with complications that might accompany it,” Terebuh said. “COVID isn’t going away.”
More than 38 million Americans have diabetes (about 1 in 10), and about 90% to 95% of them have Type 2 diabetes, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Type 2 diabetes most often develops in people 45 or older, but more and more children, teens and young adults are developing it.
“You can prevent or delay Type 2 diabetes with proven lifestyle changes,” according to the the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “These include losing weight if you have overweight, eating a healthy diet and getting regular physical activity.”
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