Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Children and Adolescents with New-Onset Type 1 Diabetes

Remission Period in Children With Newly Diagnosed Type 1 Diabetes During the COVID-19 Pandemic-Results From the DPV Registry

To investigate whether the remission period in type 1 diabetes, as measured by insulin-dose adjusted A1c (IDAA1C), was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Data from 7603 children and adolescents with type 1 diabetes from the prospective diabetes follow-up (DPV) registry were available. We compared two time periods of diabetes onset, 2020/2021 vs. 2018/2019. IDAA1C and remission prevalence (IDAA1c < 9%) were analyzed using logistic and linear regression models adjusted for age groups (0.5-<6, 6-<12, and 12-<18 years), sex, diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) at onset, use of continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) systems, insulin pumps, sensor-augmented pumps (SAPs) or automated insulin delivery (AID) systems, BMI categories (<90. percentile of BMI, 90. -<97. percentile of BMI, 97. -<99.5 percentile of BMI, > = 99.5 percentile of BMI) and immigrant background. Data from three time periods were analyzed: 3-5 months, 6-10 months, and 11-13 months after diagnosis of type 1 diabetes. Compared to the prepandemic period, during the COVID-19 pandemic adjusted IDAA1C was significantly higher at 3-5 months after diagnosis (mean estimated differences 0.26 [95% confidence interval 0.17; 0.35], p  < 0.001), but not at 6-10 months and 11-13 months after diagnosis (mean estimated difference 0.08 [-0.01; 0.17], p=0.07; and -0.03 [-0.12; 0.07], p=0.60), reflecting a lower percentage of patients in remission at 3-5 months. Reasons may be changes in autoimmune progression during the pandemic, lack of physical activities, increased stress or psychological burden, or altered access to care with delayed diagnosis of diabetes. Underlying causes need to be evaluated in future studies.

Decreased Incidence of Pediatric Neuro-Autoimmune Disorders During COVID-19 Pandemic Restrictions

Infections are hypothesized to trigger certain autoimmune diseases; however, there is a lack of epidemiologic data surrounding pediatric neuro-autoimmune disorders during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our retrospective study assessed the incidence of pre-defined autoimmune disorders diagnosed at the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario in Ottawa, Canada, between October 2017 and June 2024. Inpatient and outpatient charts were queried to identify subjects with neuro-autoimmune disorders or type 1 diabetes as a nonneurologic autoimmune comparison group. Monthly incidences were calculated and compared between 3 COVID-19 pandemic restriction periods: the prerestrictions period (October 2017-March 2020), intrarestrictions period (April 2020-June 2022), and postrestrictions period (July 2022-June 2024). Poisson regression models were fit to the incidence data. New diagnoses of neuro-autoimmune disorders and type 1 diabetes were identified in 111 and 670 subjects, respectively. Incidence of neuro-autoimmune disorders, but not type 1 diabetes, decreased during the intrarestrictions period when compared to the prerestrictions period (incidence rate ratio = 0.57, 95% confidence interval 0.33-0.95, P < .05).

Evaluation of spatiotemporal associations between COVID-19 pandemic waves and the incidence of pediatric type 1 diabetes in Germany considering time lags: A register-based ecological study

To analyze the ecological relationship between COVID-19 incidence in the total population and type 1 diabetes (T1D) incidence in children and adolescents, spatiotemporal models were applied considering time lags from 0 to 12 months. The results do not indicate a positive correlation between COVID-19 incidence and T1D incidence.

The relationship between SARS-CoV-2 infection and type 1 diabetes mellitus

Environmental factors, in particular viral infections, are thought to have an important role in the pathogenesis of type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM). The COVID-19 pandemic reinforced this hypothesis as many observational studies and meta-analyses reported a notable increase in the incidence of T1DM following infection with SARS-CoV-2 as well as an association between SARS-CoV-2 infection and the risk of new-onset T1DM. Experimental evidence suggests that human β-cells express SARS-CoV-2 receptors and that SARS-CoV-2 can infect and replicate in β-cells, resulting in structural or functional alterations of these cells. These alterations include reduced numbers of insulin-secreting granules, impaired pro-insulin (or insulin) secretion, and β-cell transdifferentiation or dedifferentiation. The inflammatory environment induced by local or systemic SARS-CoV-2 infection might result in a set of signals (such as pro-inflammatory cytokines) that lead to β-cell alteration or apoptosis or to a bystander activation of T cells and disruption of peripheral tolerance that triggers autoimmunity. Other mechanisms, such as viral persistence, molecular mimicry and activation of endogenous human retroviruses, are also likely to be involved in the pathogenesis of T1DM following SARS-CoV-2 infection. This Review addresses the issue of the involvement of SARS-CoV-2 infection in the development of T1DM using evidence from epidemiological, clinical and experimental studies.

Trends in the incidence of type 1 diabetes and type 2 diabetes in children and adolescents in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, from 2002 to 2022

AIMS

The objective of this study was to assess overall and segmented trends in the incidence of type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) in children and adolescents younger than 20 years, from 2002 to 2022.

METHODS

This study used registry data on physician-diagnosed T1DM or T2DM from primary and secondary sources, covering the German federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia with 18 million inhabitants. The ages at T1DM and T2DM onset ranged from 0 to 19 and 10-19 years, respectively. The main outcomes were direct age- and/or sex-standardized incidence rates per 100,000 person-years (PYs) and trends estimated as annual percentage changes (APCs), both with 95 % confidence intervals. The segmented trends for subperiods were based on joinpoint regression models.

RESULTS

From 2002-2022, 17,470 and 819 persons had incident T1DM and T2DM, respectively. The total number of PYs was 73,743,982 for T1DM and 39,210,453 for T2DM, with a mean coverage rate of 98 % for T1DM and 90 % for T2DM. The standardized T1DM incidence increased from 17.6 [16.3;18.9} in 2002 to 33.2 [31.3;35.1] in 2022, with an APC of 2.7 % [2.3 %;3.1 %]. The standardized T2DM incidence increased from 1.3 [0.8;1.7] in 2002 to 2.8 [2.0;3.6] in 2022, with an APC of 6.4 % [4.9 %;8.0 %]. There were four different segmented trends for T1DM and T2DM, with the incidence peaking in 2021 and subsequently declining.

CONCLUSIONS

The incidence rates of T1DM and T2DM have increased over the past 20 years, with a wave-like pattern during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Spatiotemporal association between COVID-19 incidence and type 1 diabetes incidence among children and adolescents: a register-based ecological study in Germany

Objective

Studies have shown an increased incidence of pediatric type 1 diabetes during the COVID-19 pandemic, but the detailed role of SARS-CoV-2 infection in the incidence increase in type 1 diabetes remains unclear. We investigated the spatiotemporal association of pediatric type 1 diabetes and COVID-19 incidence at the district level in Germany.

Methods

For the period from March 2020 to June 2022, nationwide data on incident type 1 diabetes among children and adolescents aged <20 years and daily documented COVID-19 infections in the total population were obtained from the German Diabetes Prospective Follow-up Registry and the Robert Koch Institute, respectively. Data were aggregated at district level and seven time periods related to COVID-19 pandemic waves. Spatiotemporal associations between indirectly standardized incidence rates of type 1 diabetes and COVID-19 were analyzed by Spearman correlation and Bayesian spatiotemporal conditional autoregressive Poisson models.

Results

Standardized incidence ratios of type 1 diabetes and COVID-19 in the pandemic period were not significantly correlated across districts and time periods. A doubling of the COVID-19 incidence rate was not associated with a significant increase in the incidence rate of type 1 diabetes (relative risk 1.006, 95% CI 0.987; 1.019).

Conclusion

Our findings based on data from the pandemic period indirectly indicate that a causal relationship between SARS-COV-2 infection and type 1 diabetes among children and adolescents is unlikely.

The Effect of COVID-19 on Type 1 Diabetes Occurrence among Children and Adolescents: A Multicenter Prospective Observational Cohort Study in Israel

Aim

The effect of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection on the pediatric occurrence of type 1 diabetes (T1D) is inconclusive. We aimed to assess associations between seroprevalences of the distinct anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies and T1D occurrence in children and adolescents.

Methods

This multicenter prospective observational cohort comprised children diagnosed with T1D between October 2020 and July 2022 and unrelated children who performed endocrine tests (control group) in a 1 : 3 ratio. Anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies, including anti-S, anti-N, and neutralizing antibodies, were assessed in each group.

Results

The cohort included 51 children with T1D and 182 children in the control group. The median (interquartile range) age was 11.4 (8.2, 13.3) years, with 45% being female. Increases were not observed in the seroprevalence of any of the anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies among the children with new-onset T1D compared to the control group. Among the T1D group, anti-S seroprevalence was higher among those without diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) than in those with DKA upon T1D diagnosis (72% vs. 42%, p=0.035). After adjustment to vaccination status, this difference was not statistically significant. Additionally, anti-N antibodies and neutralizing antibodies did not differ between the DKA and the non-DKA groups. None of the anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies were associated with any of the glycemic parameters.

Conclusions

This study is the first to assess several distinct anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in new-onset T1D, and our findings do not support an association between SARS-CoV-2 infection and the occurrence of T1D in children and adolescents. Since autoimmunity may emerge years after a viral infection, we recommend conducting follow-up epidemiological studies to assess whether there is a change in the incidence of T1D following the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic.

Paediatric new onset type 1 diabetes and diabetic ketoacidosis during the COVID-19 pandemic in Malaysia

AIMS

Despite emerging evidence of increased paediatric diabetes mellitus (DM) and diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) worldwide following the COVID-19 pandemic, studies in Asia are lacking. We aimed to determine the frequency, demographics, and clinical characteristics of new onset type 1 DM (T1DM) during the pandemic in Malaysia.

METHODS

This is a retrospective multicenter study involving new onset T1DM paediatric patients in Klang Valley, Malaysia during two time periods ie 18th September 2017-17th March 2020 (pre-pandemic) and 18th March 2020-17th September 2022 (pandemic).

RESULTS

There was a total of 180 patients with new onset T1DM during the 5-year study period (71 pre-pandemic, 109 pandemic). An increase in frequency of T1DM was observed during the pandemic (52 in 2021, 38 in 2020, 27 in 2019 and 30 in 2018). A significantly greater proportion of patients presented with DKA (79.8 % vs 64.8 %), especially severe DKA (46.8 % vs 28.2 %) during the pandemic. Serum glucose was significantly higher (28.2 mmol vs 25.9 mmol/L) with lower venous pH (7.10 vs 7.16), but HbA1c was unchanged.

CONCLUSIONS

New onset T1DM increased during the pandemic, with a greater proportion having severe DKA. Further studies are required to evaluate the mechanism leading to this rise to guide intervention measures.