CDC report suggests COVID increases risk of diabetes in children [View all]

[Judi Lynn]

By Rich Haridy
January 09, 2022

A new report from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has found children who have recovered from a COVID-19 infection are more likely to develop diabetes than those with no history of the viral infection. The preliminary findings are observational and the researchers call for more study into the association between COVID-19 and diabetes.

The new CDC study looked at data from two large US health insurance claim databases. Spanning a period from March 2020 to June 2021, the researchers looked at the rates of new diabetes diagnoses in those under the age of 18, comparing those who experienced a COVID-19 infection and those who did not.

In the largest database, encompassing health records from over 1.5 million children, the researchers found new diabetes diagnoses were 166 percent more likely in patients following COVID-19 infection compared to those with no history of COVID-19. A second dataset, covering just under 900,000 patient records, saw a much lower increase of just 30 percent in diabetes diagnoses following COVID-19.

A number of researchers not working on this new report quickly pointed out the limitations in this study’s findings. Walid Gellad, from the University of Pittsburgh, said he would not put too much stock in the report’s findings as there is no accounting for other factors that could explain the higher rates of diabetes in the COVID cohort.

More:
https://newatlas.com/health-wellbeing/cdc-covid-children-diabetes-risk/