Significant Rise in Type 1 Diabetes in Children Linked to COVID-19 - Up to 72%

 Children who have been infected with COVID-19 exhibit a noticeably greater risk of acquiring type 1 diabetes, finds a recent study that examined the electronic health data of more than 1 million patients aged 18 and under (T1D).

Children and teenagers with COVID-19 were more likely to acquire T1D six months after their COVID diagnosis, according to researchers at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. On September 23, the study was released in the journal JAMA Network Open.

The research highlighted that it is uncertain if COVID-19 causes a new onset of T1D, however, the results showed a 72% rise in new T1D diagnoses among COVID-19 patients 18 years of age and younger.

According to Pamela Davis, type 1 diabetes is seen as an autoimmune disorder. At the Case Western Reserve School of Medicine, she holds the titles of Distinguished University Professor, The Arline H. and Curtis F. Garvin Research Professor, and Corresponding Author on the study. It primarily happens because the body's immune system attacks the cells that make insulin, blocking it and leading to the condition. The increase in autoimmune responses associated with COVID has been hypothesized, and our current finding supports that hypothesis.

The study group examined the counter-computerized health data of roughly 1.1 million patients who were diagnosed with SARS-CoV-2 between March 2020 through Dec of that same year. in the U.s and 13 additional nations, 2021. They also looked at people who had respiratory infections not linked to COVID at the same time.

Patients under the age of nine and those between the ages of ten and eighteen made up the second division of the study population. There were 285,628 individuals in each group, for a maximum of 571,256 patients, after meticulous statistical matching took into consideration factors including age, demographic, and diabetes history within the family.

Study Results

The researchers found that among the more than 571,000 pediatric patients:

In contrast to 72 patients (0.025%) who received a new diagnosis after a non-COVID respiratory illness, 123 patients (0.043%) with SARS-CoV2 infection had received a new diagnosis of T1D after six months. This implies an increase of 72% in new diagnoses.

When compared to people with non-COVID respiratory infections, those with SARS-CoV2 disorder had a significantly higher probability of being diagnosed with T1D one, three, and six months after infection. Patients in the age categories of 0 to 9 years old and 10 to 18 years old had similar outcomes.

Pediatricians should be on the lookout for an influx of new cases of type 1 diabetes, mainly since the Omicron variant of COVID spreads so quickly among children, Davis advised. Families with a significant risk of type 1 diabetic complications in their kids must be particularly watchful for diabetic signs after COVID, she emphasized. We may see a big increase in this condition in the months and years to come. For those who have it, type 1 diabetes is a lifetime challenge, and the number of children with the disease is increasing.

Professor of Biomedical Informatics at the School of Medicine and director of the Center for Artificial Intelligence in Drug Discovery, Rong Xu is also a corresponding author. She stated that more research is required to determine who is most at risk, whether the elevated risk of newly developing T1D following SARS-CoV2 infection in pediatric patients will last, and how to manage T1D in children associated with COVID-19.

As a result of SARS-CoV2 infection, "we are also looking into potential changes in the development of type 2 diabetes in children," Xu said.

Children are more likely to develop type 1 diabetes (T1D) than type 2 diabetes (T2D), which is sometimes known as "adult-onset diabetes" and develops over time, frequently as the patient grows resistant to the effects of insulin and subsequently as the pancreas quits producing enough insulin, according to the ADC.