Oxford scientists find patients treated with steroids twice as likely to develop diabetes

A study from the University of Oxford found that patients being treated with steroids are more than twice as likely to develop diabetes.

Researchers at the University of Oxford have been investigating how commonly patients receiving them were developing new-onset diabetes.

The findings were presented at the annual meeting of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes in Madrid.

Glucocorticoids are steroids used to treat inflammatory and autoimmune conditions, including asthma, rheumatoid arthritis and cancers.

According to the researchers at the university’s Radcliffe Department of Medicine, while glucocorticoids decrease inflammation, adverse effects include increasing blood sugar levels.

This is more likely when people use glucocorticoid tablets or injections instead of inhalers, creams or drops.

The study found that patients receiving systemic glucocorticoids were 2.6 times to develop diabetes as those not receiving the treatment.

Study leader Dr Rajna Golubic told us how the findings can help for the future, she said: “They give clinical staff a better idea of how much more likely patients treated with systemic glucocorticoids are to develop diabetes and that can help clinician plan care for patients more effectively.

"While we studied hospital patients, glucocorticoid tablets can be prescribed by GPs for conditions such as asthma and rheumatoid arthritis and it is important that they, too, are aware of the link."

The results were made up of the clinical data of 451,606 adults admitted to the Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust between 2013 and 2024.

All were free from diabetes at the start of the study and none were taking systemic glucocorticoids.

Of these, 17,258 were treated with systemic steroids and 316 developed diabetes while in hospital.

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