Children who take steroids at increased risk for diabetes, high blood pressure, blood clots

Date:
September 17, 2020
Source:
Rutgers University
Summary:
Children who take oral steroids to treat asthma or autoimmune
diseases have an increased risk of diabetes, high blood pressure,
and blood clots, according to new researchers. The study is
the first to quantify these complications of oral steroids in a
nationwide population of children.



FULL STORY ========================================================================== Children who take oral steroids to treat asthma or autoimmune diseases
have an increased risk of diabetes, high blood pressure, and blood clots, according to Rutgers researchers.


==========================================================================
The study, which was published in the American Journal of Epidemiology, examined the records of more than 933,000 US children from ages 1 to 18
with or without autoimmune diseases, such as inflammatory bowel disease, juvenile arthritis or psoriasis. Among those without an autoimmune
disease, about two in three children who received prescriptions for
steroids had evidence of asthma.

"The rates of diabetes, high blood pressure and blood clots from oral
steroids have been studied in large populations of adults. However, there
are reasons to think these findings might be different in children,
who not only tend to take steroids differently than adults but also
have much lower baseline risks of developing these same cardiovascular
and metabolic conditions. This study allowed us to put numbers on the association between oral steroids and rare, but potentially serious, complications in children," said study author Daniel Horton, an assistant professor of pediatrics and epidemiology at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson
Medical School.

The researchers found that children who were receiving high steroid
doses experienced these complications at much higher rates than
children taking low doses or who had taken steroids previously. Among
the complications studied, high blood pressure occurred most commonly
with steroid treatment. All of these complications were more common among children with autoimmune diseases, independent of the steroid effect.

"While children receiving high-dose steroids were at substantially higher
risk for developing diabetes, high blood pressure or blood clots relative
to children not taking these medicines, the absolute risks of these complications were still small. The vast majority of children taking
brief courses of steroids for conditions such as asthma, for instance,
will not experience these complications," Horton said.

The study was co-authored by Brian Strom, chancellor of Rutgers Biomedical
and Health Sciences.


========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by Rutgers_University. Original written
by Patti Verbanas.

Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Daniel B Horton, Fenglong Xie, Lang Chen, Melissa L Mannion,
Jeffrey R
Curtis, Brian L Strom, Timothy Beukelman. Oral Glucocorticoids and
Incident Treatment of Diabetes Mellitus, Hypertension, and Venous
Thromboembolism in Children. American Journal of Epidemiology,
2020; DOI: 10.1093/aje/kwaa197 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/09/200917084109.htm

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