Diabetes incidence before and after COVID-19 vaccination – Results from the German Disease Analyzer database

OBJECTIVE: We investigated whether COVID-19 vaccination had an impact on diabetes risk. METHODS: We used data of 6,198 patients (mean age 64.3 years) from the nationwide Disease Analyzer database, a representative panel of physicians’ practices in Germany. Patients received their first COVID-19 vaccination between 1 April 2021 and 31 March 2022, and all were newly diagnosed with diabetes within 183 days before or after this vaccination. Incident rates of diabetes after vaccination were compared to incident rates before vaccination. RESULTS: The incidence rate of diabetes was lower after vaccination than before vaccination (incidence rate ratio = 0.79, 95% confidence interval: 0.75–0.83). The number of incident cases of diabetes was not greater in 2021 than in 2019. CONCLUSION: Our study did not confirm an increased risk of diabetes after COVID-19 vaccination. Further studies are needed to show whether the vaccination may be associated with a reduced diabetes risk.