Diabetes can cause kidney problems, nerve damage, blindness and serious cardiovascular complications. Obesity increases the likelihood of developing type 2 diabetes. Type 1 diabetes usually occurs in children, although it can also develop in adults.

Previous studies have indicated a possible relationship between diabetes and infections, but most of the studies have been retrospective, analyzing previously collected data. The new study looked forward, prospectively comparing about 7,500 diabetic patients with nearly 19,000 selected control patients to examine the link between diabetes and infections.

The researchers found that compared to patients in the control group, the odds were significantly higher that both type 1 and type 2 diabetic patients would develop infections of the respiratory tract, skin and mucous membranes and urinary tract. In fact, patients with type 1 diabetes were twice as likely to develop a urinary tract infection as non-diabetics. Diabetics' risk for recurring infection was also higher.

"Physicians should be aware of the fact that diabetes patients have an increased risk of common infections," said Leonie Muller, MSc, of the University Medical Center Utrecht in the Netherlands and lead author of the study. "Further research should focus on the prognosis of common infections in patients with diabetes, thereby providing physicians tailored information on which patients are at high risk."

Americans' expanding waistlines carry a heightened risk for diabetes, which could also mean heightened risk for infections. "With increasing rates of type 2 diabetes patients, some common infections of the lungs, bladder and skin will also be more common in this group," Ms. Mu
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Contact: Steve Baragona
sbaragona@idsociety.org
703-299-0412
Infectious Diseases Society of America
23-Jun-2005