Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Glucocorticoid and antibiotic use linked to diabetes risk in UK dogs
By Heeley, Angela M et al.·Published in The Veterinary record·2023·Department of Pathobiology and Population Sciences, United Kingdom·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Assessment of glucocorticoid and antibiotic exposure as risk factors for diabetes mellitus in selected dog breeds attending UK primary-care clinics.
- Species:
- dog
Plain-English summary
A study found that dogs with diabetes mellitus (DM) were more likely to have received glucocorticoids (a type of steroid medication) in the weeks leading up to their diagnosis. Specifically, these dogs had over four times the risk of having been treated with glucocorticoids compared to dogs without diabetes. Interestingly, dogs that had only one course of antibiotics showed a lower risk of developing DM. This suggests that while glucocorticoids may increase the risk of diabetes in certain breeds, limited antibiotic use might not have the same effect.
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Abstract
BACKGROUND: Diabetes mellitus (DM) is an important endocrine disorder in dogs. This study explored prior exposure to glucocorticoids or antibiotic treatment as risk factors for developing DM in dogs attending primary-care VetCompass clinics in the UK. METHODS: A breed frequency matched case-control study nested in a cohort of dogs (n = 480,469) aged 3 years or over was used to explore associations between glucocorticoid and antibiotic exposure and the odds of developing DM. RESULTS: A total of 565 cases and 2179 controls were included. Dogs with DM had over four times the odds of exposure to glucocorticoids within 6 weeks prior to diagnosis (odds ratio [OR] 4.07, 95% confidence interval [CI] 2.41-6.89, p < 0.001) compared to controls within 6 weeks prior to a randomly selected quasi-date of diagnosis. Dogs that had only one unique documented antibiotic course had a decreased odds of developing DM (OR 0.65, 95% CI 0.46-0.91, p = 0.012) compared to dogs that had no documented courses of antibiotics. LIMITATIONS: This study only included selected breeds, so the results may not be generalisable to all dog breeds. CONCLUSIONS: Exposure to glucocorticoids is associated with a substantial increase in the risk of developing DM for the dog breeds included in this analysis.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37004211/