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A group of researchers confirmed that people who have had an infection with COVID-19 have a higher risk of diabetes; however, the application of the vaccine can help reduce the probability.
“Our results validate initial findings revealing a risk of developing type 2 diabetes after COVID-19 infection and indicate that this risk has unfortunately persisted through the Omicron era,” said Alan Kwan, MD, study author. and a cardiovascular physician at the Smidt Heart Institute at Cedars-Sinai.
The researchers note that this trend is concerning because most people in the United States will eventually experience a COVID-19 infection. “This research study helps us better understand and prepare for the post-COVID-19 era of cardiovascular risk.”
The findings, published in the journal JAMA Network Open also suggest that the risk of type 2 diabetes appears lower in people who were already vaccinated against COVID-19 when they became infected.
“The combined risk of type 2 diabetes after exposure to COVID-19, for both vaccinated and unvaccinated patients, was 2.1 percent, with 70 percent after COVID-19 infection vs. to 30 percent before exposure to the virus,” the study details.
To determine rising rates of diabetes, the researchers evaluated the medical records of 23,709 adult patients who had at least one documented COVID-19 infection and were treated at Cedars-Sinai Health System in Los Angeles between 2020 and 2022.
“These results suggest that vaccination against COVID-19 prior to infection may provide a protective effect against the risk of diabetesKwan said. “Although further studies are needed to validate this hypothesis, we remain steadfast in our belief that vaccination against COVID-19 remains an important tool to protect against COVID-19 and the still uncertain risks that people may experience during the period after infection.
“Although we don’t know for sure yet, the trends and patterns we see in the data suggest that COVID-19 infection could be acting in certain settings as a disease accelerator, increasing the risk of a diagnosis that people might have received later in life,” said Cheng, a co-author of the study. “So it could be that instead of being diagnosed with diabetes at age 65, a person with pre-existing risk of diabetes might, after a COVID-19 infection, be more likely to develop diabetes at age 45 or 55.”
Research could help doctors understand how to prevent the risk of metabolic and cardiovascular diseases in the future.
“Our ultimate goal, with every research study we do, is to find ways to keep people healthy and able to participate in their daily lives and activities,” Kwan said.
