Patients receiving steroids more than twice as likely to develop diabetes

Patients who are being treated with systemic glucocorticoids are more than twice as likely to develop diabetes as those not receiving the treatment, a new study by researchers in Oxford has found.

Glucocorticoids, sometimes known as steroids, fight inflammation and are used to treat a wide range of inflammatory and autoimmune conditions, including asthma, rheumatoid arthritis and cancers.

While they can be very effective in decreasing inflammation, glucocorticoids have many adverse effects, including increasing blood sugar levels and causing diabetes. This is more likely when people use glucocortricoid tablets or injections than when used as inhalers, creams or drops.

The study, by researchers at the Radcliffe Department of Medicine’s Diabetes Trial Unit, investigated how commonly patients being treated with glucocorticoids can develop new-onset diabetes. The study found that patients receiving systemic glucocorticoids were 2.6 times more likely to develop diabetes as those not receiving the treatment.

The study involved 451,606 adults admitted to Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust between 1 January 2013 and 1 October 2023. All were free from diabetes at the start of the study and none were taking systemic glucocorticoids.

Some 17,258, or 3.8 percent, of these patients were treated with systemic glucocorticoids - such as prednisolone, hydrocortisone, dexamethasone - while in hospital, most commonly for autoimmune and inflammatory diseases and for infections. Of these patients, 316 (1.8 percent) developed diabetes while in hospital.

This compares with 3,430 of the 434,348 patients (0.8%) who did not receive systemic glucocorticoids. Patients were typically admitted for less than a week.

Dr Rajna Golubic, who led the study, said: "Existing information on how much more common new diabetes is in patients treated with glucocorticoids is based on small studies including patients with one or a few conditions. We wanted to expand the data to get a more accurate idea of how likely it is that people could develop diabetes while being treated with these drugs."

She added: "These latest results give clinical staff a better estimate of how likely new diabetes is to occur and could prompt doctors to plan clinical care more effectively to detect and manage new diabetes.

"While we studied hospital patients, glucocorticoid tablets can be prescribed by GPs for conditions such as asthma and rheumatoid arthritis and it is important that they, too, are aware of the link. This study also shows how routinely collected clinical data can be used to help people with diabetes."

The study was presented at the annual meeting of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes in Madrid.