Diabetes (a condition where blood sugar level is too high) is associated with key complications such as cardiovascular, kidney, eye and foot conditions. However, people with diabetes may also be more likely to develop other conditions not necessarily flagged as key complications. The landscape of which conditions matter for people with diabetes has changed:
- Better prevention and diabetes management in recent years has led to a decline in cardiovascular complications in people with diabetes.
- Other conditions not considered as diabetes complications have become more prominent in people with diabetes (e.g. cancer is now the leading cause of death in people with diabetes in England).
- The COVID-19 pandemic changed how likely diseases are to develop (e.g. higher risk of cardiovascular disease following COVID-19).
Therefore, the conditions that people with diabetes live with and develop after their diabetes diagnosis, warrants further investigation using contemporary data to better tailor care and prevention.
This project aims to re-evaluate the relationship between diabetes and the development of multiple long-term conditions, including cardiovascular diseases, cancer and other conditions, during and after the COVID-19 pandemic (from 2020 onwards) to help guide care pathways for people developing diabetes today. The project will use linked electronic health records from the whole populations of England, Scotland and Wales and explore how health inequalities may impact the conditions that people develop after a new diabetes diagnosis.
Findings will inform UK-wide and nation-specific policy and guidance (including through existing links with Diabetes UK and national diabetes audits) for the prevention of long-term conditions in people with diabetes.