During the COVID-19 pandemic, patients with newly diagnosed type 1 diabetes were much more likely to be in severe diabetic ketoacidosis, says Mary Pat Gallagher, MD, director of the Pediatric Diabetes Center at Hassenfeld Children’s Hospital at NYU Langone and assistant professor in the Department of Pediatrics. Dr. Gallagher’s talk, “Epidemiology of COVID-19 and Pediatric Diabetes—New-Onset/Diabetic Ketoacidosis,” was presented at the American Diabetes Association’s 81st Scientific Sessions.

“What we found was consistent with what was reported from other registries around the world, that people with type 1 diabetes, being newly diagnosed, presented in a much more severe state of metabolic disarray,” says Dr. Gallagher. “They were in diabetic ketoacidosis and were much more likely to be in what’s considered severe DKA with a pH of 7.1 or less.”

Dr. Gallagher tells AJMC, “As it is the pandemic of the 21st century, we’ll be learning about COVID-19 for a long time. One of the most important questions in patients with diabetes is, ‘In what way is it affecting onset and the presentation?’ I think from our data, we have a general sense that age is the most important risk factor for disease severity.”

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