The European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) Annual Meeting in Madrid, Spain (9-13 September) will feature new research from the Diabetes Trials Unit, University of Oxford’s Radcliffe Department of Medicine, Oxford, UK. The study sheds light on the increased risk of diabetes development for patients undergoing systemic glucocorticoid treatment.
Dr. Rajna Golubic, the study leader, explained, “Existing data on the likelihood of new diabetes in patients treated with glucocorticoids is based on small studies focusing on specific conditions. We wanted to expand the data to gain a clearer understanding of the risk.”
The study involved 451,606 adults (median age 52 years, 55% female, 69% white) admitted to the Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust between 1 January 2013 and 1 October 2023. All participants were free from diabetes at the study’s onset and had not been receiving systemic glucocorticoids.
A total of 17,258 (3.8%) of the patients received systemic glucocorticoids during their hospital stay, primarily for autoimmune and Inflammatory Bowel Diseases and infections. Among these patients, 316 (1.8%) developed diabetes while in the hospital. In contrast, 3,430 (0.8%) of the 434,348 patients not receiving systemic glucocorticoids developed diabetes.
Further analysis, taking age and sex into account, showed that patients receiving systemic glucocorticoids were more than twice as likely (2.6 times) to develop diabetes as those not receiving the treatment.
Dr. Golubic stated, “These findings provide clinical staff with a more accurate estimate of the risk of new diabetes and could encourage doctors to implement more effective strategies for detecting and managing diabetes in patients undergoing systemic glucocorticoid treatment. It is essential that healthcare professionals, including GPs, are aware of this link, as glucocorticoid tablets can be prescribed for conditions such as asthma and rheumatoid arthritis.”
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1. Source: Coherent Market Insights, Public sources, Desk research
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