According to a study presented at ENDO 2023, the Endocrine Society′s annual meeting in Illinois, US, thenumber of children diagnosed with Type-2 diabetes continued to rise in the year after the COVID-19 pandemicbegan.

The study also showed that more pregnant women developed gestational diabetes during the COVID-19pandemic than in the preceding two years.

In the first study, researchers from Nationwide Childrens Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, hypothesized that manyfactors, such as school closures causing kids to be less active, snacking more frequently, or eating more unhealthyfoods, led to increased weight gain and more cases of Type-2 diabetes.

The retrospective analysis discovered that among all new-onset diabetes in children, the relative proportion ofType-2 diabetes was 24.8% in the first year following COVID, 18.9% in the second year, and 32.1% in the thirdyear, respectively.

In the second study, researchers from the University of Sydney in Australia examined 14,663 pregnancies in thetwo years preceding COVID-19. The researchers identified statistically significant increases in pre-pregnancyBMI, obesity, and other risk factors for gestational diabetes, including individuals of South Asian heritage and aprevious history of gestational diabetes.

The study found a steady rise in the risk of gestational diabetes over the first and second years of the pandemic.The incidence increased from 21% before the pandemic to 25% in the second year.(Source: https://www.daijiworld.com/news/newsDisplay?newsID=1090687 )