Study finds diabetes in youths is linked to COVID-19 infection

Children and teens are significantly more likely to be diagnosed with diabetes after a COVID-19 infection, data show, raising concerns about the virus’ long-term consequences in San Antonio, where the chronic endocrine condition is disproportionately common.

A federal study found that children and adolescents diagnosed with COVID were up to 2.5 times more likely to be diagnosed with diabetes in the months after an infection. The study looked at youth health outcomes in two large medical claims databases.

“The increased diabetes risk among persons” younger than 18 “following COVID-19 highlights the importance of COVID-19 prevention strategies in this age group, including vaccination for all eligible persons and chronic disease prevention and treatment,” the researchers wrote.

Although doctors have long known that people with diabetes are at increased risk for severe COVID, the study offers new clues about the association between the two diseases.

“Diabetes among children and adolescents, while one of the most common chronic diseases in this age group, is still relatively rare,” said Sharon Saydah, a senior scientist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which conducted the study. “Given this, even a small increase in the number of diabetes cases in this age group is meaningful.”

The researchers did not distinguish between Type 1 and Type 2 pediatric diabetes. Historically, more than 90 percent of all childhood cases have been Type 1.

The San Antonio Metropolitan Health District estimates that 15.5 percent of Bexar County adults have been diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes. About 1 of every 10 people in the United States suffers from the disease — about 34 million people

Scientists believe COVID may cause diabetes by attacking pancreatic cells, altering how the body metabolizes glucose in the bloodstream. A person with diabetes has trouble regulating glucose, more commonly known as blood sugar.

The new pediatric diabetes cases likely occurred in children with pre-diabetes, which affects one in five American kids, many of whom have a parent or sibling with the disease. Although the study did not explicitly address whether children with a family history of diabetes are more likely to become diabetic after a COVID infection, Saydah said, it “could be one possible reason” for the connection.

Nearly 83,000 people in Texas have died of COVID-19 in the nearly two years since the global pandemic was declared.

Children have been largely spared the ravages of COVID, which has overwhelmingly targeted older people and those with underlying conditions. The delta variant, first identified in India in late 2020, sickened children at higher rates than all previous strains until omicron, which has finally started to wane.

Children accounted for about a quarter of all omicron cases nationwide at the height of the latest surge.