Longer diabetes duration increases risk of severe COVID-19: study
Researchers have teased out the main risk factors for poor prognosis among people with diabetes, including microvascular complications and comorbidities
Duration of diabetes is a key risk factor for severe and fatal COVID-19, partly explaining why people with type 1 diabetes appear to be at higher risk than those with type 2 disease, UK researchers say.
Their population-based cohort study in Scotland found people with type 1 diabetes were 2.4 times more likely to die or require critical care treatment than the general population.
This compared with increased odds of about 40% for patients with COVID-19 who had type 2 diabetes, the study authors, from the University of Edinburgh, wrote in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology.
The difference between type 1 and type 2 risk disappeared after adjusting for time since diagnosis, suggesting this was a key underlying factor, they said.
