March 25, 2015

expert reaction to study on antibiotic use and type 2 diabetes

A study published in the European Journal of Endocrinology has examined what effect the use of antibiotics might have on the incidence of diabetes. The authors report that in a UK cohort of patients, treatment with one course of antibiotics didn’t significantly alter risk of developing diabetes, but use of more than one course of specific antibiotics was associated with an increased incidence of developing type 2 diabetes.

Prof. Jodi Lindsay, Professor of Microbial Pathogenesis, St George’s, University of London, said:

“Patients with type 2 diabetes have an increased risk of developing infections, and therefore they are more likely to be prescribed antibiotics to treat those infections. In the year prior to diabetes diagnosis, patients may show some signs of disease and may also have a higher risk of infection, and therefore receive more antibiotics. This is a very large and helpful study linking diabetes with antibiotic consumption in the UK public, but at this stage we don’t know which is the chicken and which is the egg. The idea that antibiotics might contribute to diabetes development might be important and more research needs to be done.”

 ‘The effect of past antibiotic exposure on diabetes risk’ by Boursi et al. will be published in the European Journal of Endocrinology at 00:01 UK time on Wednesday 25th March, which is also when the embargo will lift. 

Declared interests

Prof. Jodi Lindsay has acted as a consultant to Pfizer on staphylococcal vaccines.