The long-term consequences of an infection with the coronavirus are only gradually becoming clear. In addition to chronic fatigue syndrome and brain damage, a huge data analysis now shows that Covid 19 disease also increases the risk of diabetes – by as much as 40 percent. Older people are especially affected.
The study was published a few days ago in “Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology” and broadly confirms the first similar research results. Accordingly, a huge wave of chronic diseases caused by Covid-19 could hit the world.
“Whole series of consequential damages”
“There is mounting evidence that people with Covid-19 can sustain a range of secondary harm, including diabetes, beyond the acute phase of SARS-CoV-2 infection. The magnitude of the risk and incidence of diabetes after the acute disease, however, have not been fully mapped,” wrote Yan Xie and Ziyad Al-Aly of the Center for Epidemiology and Biostatistics at Saint Louis University and the US Department of Veterans Affairs, respectively. -army.
Eight million people in comparison groups
The epidemiologists analyzed data from 181,280 policyholders at the U.S. Former Military Facility with an average age of around 60 years (88 percent males) who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 between March 1, 2020 and September 30, 2021. and were still alive after 30 days.
A so-called cohort of 4.2 million people of the same age with similar characteristics without Covid 19 disease from the same time period and a second group of about 4.2 million people from the pre-pandemic era served as comparison groups. The deciding factor should be the new onset of type 2 diabetes within a year.
Greatly increased risk of diabetes
“In the post-acute period, people with Covid-19 showed an increased risk of developing diabetes (plus 40 percent) and more new cases (13.46 new patients per 1000 people within a year) compared to the current comparator group) and a greater frequency of taking blood sugar-lowering drugs (an increase of 85 percent) and more of these cases (12.35 per 1,000 people over a 12-month period), the experts wrote. The comparison with the pre-pandemic control group was very similar.
Severity of the disease often crucial
The risks apparently depend on the severity of the recovered Covid 19 disease. For people not hospitalized for Covid-19, there were 8.28 extra cases of diabetes per 1,000 people within a year. In the following year, Covid-19 patients in hospital registered 56.93 new cases of diabetes per 1000 people than in the control groups, and among 1000 people after Covid-19 therapy in intensive care units, there were even 89.06 more cases of diabetes.
Obesity with a body mass index greater than 30 was associated with 15.7 additional cases of diabetes in 1,000 affected individuals one year after SARS-CoV-2 infection.
Whole “legacy” of diseases
Ziyad Al-Aly noted that Covid-19 will leave a whole “legacy” of chronic diseases. Last November, in a similar study of Covid-19 survivors, the scientists showed that the risk of acute kidney damage had nearly doubled compared to people who had not had SARS-CoV-2 infection.
Diabetes is on the rise in general
The expected increase in diabetes cases due to the Covid 19 pandemic is itself accompanied by a continuously increasing number of this disease. In 2000, 4.6 percent of adults had diabetes, now with 530 million patients it is about ten percent. For the year 2045, the predictions are for about 780 million diabetics worldwide. The driving cause is apparently obesity, which is becoming more common.
Source: Krone
I’m Wayne Wickman, a professional journalist and author for Today Times Live. My specialty is covering global news and current events, offering readers a unique perspective on the world’s most pressing issues. I’m passionate about storytelling and helping people stay informed on the goings-on of our planet.
