Study finds COVID-19 may increase risk of type 2 diabetes

Researchers of a new study reported that individuals infected with COVID-19 were significantly more likely to be diagnosed with type 2 diabetes within 1 year of their infection compared with those who had not been exposed to the virus. They also found that men were more likely than women to develop diabetes.

Additionally, those admitted to intensive care with COVID-19 were more than three times as likely to develop diabetes, according to the study findings.

The study, published in JAMA Network Open, used a large data set from British Columbia to compare diabetes diagnoses among more than 125,000 individuals who had tested positive for COVID-19 in 2020 and 2021 with those of more than 500,000 unexposed individuals during the same period.

More than a dozen studies have examined the link between COVID-19 and diabetes, and a majority have reported an increase in diagnosis following infection as well as higher risks for men and those with severe disease.