The rise in incidence of pediatric type 2 diabetes during the COVID-19 pandemic and the virus as a potential causative factor

Aim: The prevalence of type 2 diabetes continues to rise across multiple demographics but there was an especially large increase in incidence during the COVID-19 pandemic. A pre-existing diagnosis of type 2 diabetes is generally associated with more difficulties with viral infections, as seen with COVID-19, but it is less clear if a reverse causal association exists between the development of type 2 diabetes and infection with the COVID-19 virus. Our aim was to determine if an association exists between the COVID-19 virus and new diagnoses of pediatric type 2 diabetes. Methods: We examined 130 new patients in our pediatric endocrinology practice diagnosed with type 2 diabetes immediately before and just after the emergence of the pandemic to determine if there was a change in presenting characteristics between these two periods. Results: Our data showed an increase in the incidence of type 2 diabetes (p <0.0001) and a lower mean presenting age (p = 0.03) during the COVID-19 pandemic without differences in other parameters. Conclusion: We believe these results suggest that the development of type 2 diabetes following COVID-19 infection is due to mechanisms inherent to the virus itself and that younger patients are especially at an increased risk. (c) 2025 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Masson SAS. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)