WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Researchers at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine in Cleveland have discovered a link between COVID-19 and Type 2 diabetes in children and teenagers.
A study, published in the JAMA Network Open Medical Journal, analyzed the electronic health records of more than 600,000 patients, 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.
The study 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.
The absolute risk of type 2 being diagnosed in any child remained well under one percentage point. But the increased risk was considered significant: Of the 306,801 children studied, 398 in the Covid group received a type 2 diagnosis, compared to 252 who had not had Covid.
'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.
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