February 14, 2023 – Vaccination appears to cut back the increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes after a COVID infection, in line with a study. new study Published in JAMA network opened.
Early within the pandemic, individuals who had recovered from COVID infection were more prone to develop diseases akin to diabetes for the primary time. This study confirmed those observations and located that the upper risk continued throughout the pandemic, whilst recent variants emerged.
“Our findings confirm that the risk of developing type 2 diabetes after COVID-19 infection was not just an early observation, but indeed a real risk that unfortunately persists throughout the omicron era,” said lead writer Alan Kwan, MD, a cardiologist on the Smidt Heart Institute at Cedars-Sinai, in a press release.
Kwan notes that the trend is concerning because most individuals within the U.S. have already been infected with COVID or shall be infected with COVID in some unspecified time in the future. At the identical time, he and his co-authors found that the danger of developing diabetes was higher in unvaccinated people than in vaccinated people, suggesting that vaccination reduces the danger.
“This research study helps us understand and better prepare for the post-COVID period of cardiovascular risk,” he says.
Kwan and colleagues analyzed medical records of nearly 24,000 adult patients who had no less than one confirmed COVID infection and were treated at Cedars-Sinai Health System in Los Angeles between March 2020 and June 2022. They looked for brand new cardiometabolic diagnoses (diabetes, hypertension and high lipid levels akin to cholesterol) reported before or after a patient's first COVID infection.
The research team estimated the probability of considered one of these cases occurring 90 days after infection in comparison with 90 days before infection.
To account for disruptions in healthcare utilization in the course of the pandemic, they compared their results to the likelihood of one other recent diagnosis unrelated to the COVID visit, akin to a urinary tract infection or acid reflux disorder. They also considered aspects akin to age, gender, timing of infection (before or after the emergence of the omicron variant of COVID-19), and whether the patient had received the COVID vaccine.
Overall, rates of new-onset diabetes, hypertension, and high lipids were higher within the 90 days after COVID infection than before. Diabetes had the best probability of being diagnosed after infection, followed by hypertension.
Further analyses showed that the danger of developing recent type 2 diabetes after a COVID infection remained elevated.
The combined risk – for each vaccinated and unvaccinated patients – was 2.1%, with 70% occurring after COVID infection and 30% occurring before COVID exposure.
In unvaccinated patients, the danger was 2.7%, with 74% developing the disease after COVID infection in comparison with 26% before contact with COVID.
In vaccinated patients, the danger was 1%, with 51% occurring after COVID infection in comparison with 49% before COVID contact.
“These results suggest that COVID-19 vaccination prior to infection may have a protective effect against diabetes risk,” says Kwan. “Although further studies are needed to confirm this hypothesis, we remain firmly convinced that COVID-19 vaccination remains an important tool for protection against COVID-19 and the still-unclear risks people may face in the post-infection period.”
The research team found no differences in increased risk based on age, gender, or timing of infection (before or after Omicron). However, some questions remain about other aspects, akin to the severity of COVID infection, the most recent variants, and the variety of vaccine doses.
Further research can also be needed to grasp how COVID affects the body and diabetes risk, the authors indicate. Persistent inflammation, a trademark of COVID infection, can result in insulin resistance, metabolic disorders, and the event of hypertension or diabetes. Due to damaged blood vessels and organs, these recent developments also increase the danger of heart attacks and strokes.
“Although we don't yet know for sure, the trends and patterns we see in the data suggest that in certain situations, COVID-19 infection could act as a disease accelerator, increasing the risk of a diagnosis that people would otherwise have received later in life,” said lead writer Susan Cheng, MD, professor of cardiology and director of the Division of Cardiovascular Population Sciences on the Smidt Heart Institute, in a press release.
“It could be that a person who is already at risk for diabetes after a COVID-19 infection will not be diagnosed with diabetes at age 65, but rather develop diabetes at age 45 or 55,” she says.