Link between diabetes, antibiotic use called into question

(HealthDay)—Previous findings that systemic use of antibiotics increases the risk of diabetes may actually be explained by clinical and lifestyle factors, according to a study published online Nov. 20 in Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism.

Ming Ye, Ph.D., from the University of Alberta in Canada, and colleagues assessed the association between systemic use of antibiotics and risk of diabetes in a cohort of adults (1,676 diabetes cases and 13,401 controls) in Canada using linked administrative health records (2000 to 2015) and data from Alberta's Tomorrow Project, a longitudinal cohort study.

The researchers found that while more cases than controls received at least six courses of antibiotics (17.9 versus 13.8 percent), the association between antibiotic use and risk of diabetes was progressively reduced when clinical and lifestyle factors were accounted for. In fully adjusted models, compared to participants with zero or one course of antibiotics, those receiving more antibiotics did not have an increased risk of diabetes (odds ratio, 0.97; 95 percent confidence interval, 0.83 to 1.13 for two to four courses and odds ratio, 0.98; 95 percent confidence interval, 0.82 to 1.18 for five or more courses).

"Our results suggest that those positive associations observed by previous studies using only administrative records might have been confounded," conclude the authors.

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