A recent study investigated the prevalence of long COVID in people with diabetes. Long COVID refers to the prolonged persistence of symptoms after SARS-CoV-2 infection. The study found that individuals with type 2 diabetes (T2D) were more likely to develop long COVID compared to non-diabetic controls, while those with type 1 diabetes (T1D) were less likely.
The study, published in eClinicalMedicine, used data from the Greater Manchester Care Record, which hosts the Primary Health Care records of approximately 2.87 million people in Greater Manchester, UK. The researchers matched individuals with T1D or T2D with healthy or non-diabetic controls based on age and sex. All study participants had tested positive for COVID-19.
The results showed that people with T2D had a higher prevalence of long COVID compared to non-diabetic controls (0.48% vs. 0.33%). However, people with T1D had a lower prevalence of long COVID compared to matched controls (0.33% vs. 0.48%).
The researchers also found that the prevalence of long COVID was higher in younger females with T2D. They suggest that this may be due to the tendency of this group to visit general practices more frequently than males.
The study has some limitations, including the exclusion of people with other forms of diabetes and the reliance on self-reported data. However, it provides important insights into the prevalence of long COVID in people with diabetes.
More research is needed to understand the factors that influence the risk of developing long COVID, particularly in people with diabetes.
