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During the coronavirus pandemic, diabetes has been considered a risk factor for severe covid-19.
A new study, published in the leading medical journal The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology, shows that there are good reasons for this.
Researchers have studied the entire population of Scotland during the first wave of the pandemic, from March 1 to July 31, 2020.
1 in 3 died
5,143,951 people did not have a diagnosis of diabetes, while 319,349 had known diabetes.
Among diabetic patients, 2,724 had COVID-19 detected during the first wave of the pandemic. 1,082 of these had a very severe course of disease and 963 of them died.
Of the diabetic patients with covid-19, around one in three died.
By comparison, 4,081 of the more than 5 million people without diabetes developed severe Covid-19.
About 1 in 5 people with severe coronary disease in Scotland had known diabetes.
Very common
Furthermore, the researchers found that diabetics’ risk of a critical or fatal course of COVID-19 increased with age. Only 30 of the 1,082 people who developed severe coronavirus disease were under the age of 50.
Almost 90 percent were 60 or older.
Diabetes is very common, also in Norway.
It is estimated that around 245,000 people (4.7 percent) or around 20 Norwegians have known diabetes. Of these, around 28,000 have type 1 diabetes and 216,000 type 2 diabetes, according to the Norwegian Institute of Public Health (NIPH).
Both genres
The increased risk of critical or fatal Covid-19 associated with diabetes was evident in both genders and in all age groups in the Scottish study.
Adjusted for age and sex, the increased risk was higher for type 1 diabetes (2.4 times) than for type 2 diabetes (1.4 times), compared to the general population.
In terms of absolute risk, three out of every 1,000 people with diabetes in Scotland developed critical or fatal COVID-19 in the period to July 31, 2020.
And the conclusion of the researchers is clear:
The overall risk of developing critical or fatal coronavirus disease is substantially higher for both types of diabetic patients, compared to the general population.
Norwegian findings
– Diabetes has been shown to be a risk factor for severe illness and death from COVID-19 in many countries, says physician and department director Hanne Løvdal Gulseth of the Department of Chronic Diseases and Aging at the National Institute of Public Health (NIPH). ).
She believes the new Scottish study is in line with previous research findings.
– For example, FHI recently published a study in the Journal of the Norwegian Medical Association where we showed that 20 percent of all people who died after covid-19 disease in Norway from March to May had diabetes. Among those who died in hospital, 3 out of 10 had diabetes. In Norway, there are currently very few with type 1 diabetes who have died after COVID-19, says Løvdal Gulseth.
The NIPH department director believes it is important to emphasize that the vast majority of people with diabetes who contract COVID-19 have yet to develop a severe course of coronavirus disease.
Regarding the Scottish study, he notes that the country’s health records are very good and that therefore Scottish researchers have been able to adjust to many external factors.
– They find, like the general population, that old age, being a man and being a resident of a nursing home are associated with a higher risk. Long-term diabetes and diabetic complications in the kidneys and eyes also increase the risk, says Løvdal Gulseth.
Therefore, she believes that it is important that people with diabetes receive good diabetes care so that blood sugar treatment is optimized and complications of diabetes are detected and treated.
– People with diabetes will also be among the priority groups for vaccination against covid-19, says Løvdal Gulseth.
