Novel research published in ‘Diabetologia’ revealed that a possible association exists between mild Covid-19 cases and subsequently diagnosed diabetes. Individuals with acute upper respiratory tract infections (AURI), which are frequently caused by viruses, were selected as a non-exposed control group.

The analysis of health records from 1,171 general and internal medicine practices across Germany was included in the study. Poisson regression models were fitted to obtain incidence rate ratios (IRRs) for diabetes. The analysis showed that adults who recover from mostly mild COVID-19 appear to have a significantly higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes (15.8 vs 12.3 per 1000 person-years) than a matched control group who had other types of respiratory infections, which are also frequently caused by viruses.

According to the investigators, Professor Wolfgang Rathmann and Professor Oliver Kuss from the German Diabetes Center at Heinrich Heine University, Dusseldorf, Germany, and Professor Karel Kostev (IQVIA, Frankfurt, Germany) Covid-19 confer an increased risk for type 2 diabetes. If confirmed, these results support the active monitoring of glucose dysregulation after recovery from mild forms of SARS-CoV-2 infection.