Takeaway
- Long-term antibiotic use in recent years was associated with an increased risk of type 2 diabetes (T2D) in women, independently of traditional diabetes risk factors.
Why this matters
- Findings add further evidence that physicians should exercise caution when prescribing antibiotics, particularly for a longer duration.
Study design
- This prospective cohort study included 114,210 women without diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and cancer in the Nurses’ Health Study (NHS 2008-2014, n=50,810) and NHS II (2009-2017, n=63,400).
- Overall duration of antibiotics use in the past 4 years and subsequent risk of T2D were assessed.
- Funding: supported by the start-up grant for the 100 Top Talents Program and others.
Key results
- Pooled analyses of NHS and NHS II (2837 cases; 703,934 person-years) showed that the duration of antibiotic use in the past 4 years was positively associated with the risk of T2D (Trend-coefficient=0.09; 95% CI, 0.04-0.13).
- Compared with non-users, the risk of T2D was higher in participants who received antibiotics treatment for a medium duration of 15 days to 2 months (HR, 1.23; 95% CI, 1.10-1.39) or long duration of >2 months (HR, 1.20; 95% CI, 1.02-1.38).
- Subgroup analyses suggested that associations between antibiotic use and subsequent T2D risk were unlikely to be modified by family diabetes history, body mass index, smoking, alcohol drinking, physical activity, and overall diet quality.
Limitations
- Risk of bias.
- Observational design could not confirm a causal effect of antibiotic use on T2D.
This clinical summary originally appeared on Univadis, part of the Medscape Professional Network.
