Horton DB, Xie F, Chen L, Mannion ML, Curtis JR, Strom BL, Beukelman T. Oral Glucocorticoids and Incident Treatment of Diabetes Mellitus, Hypertension, and Venous Thromboembolism in Children.
Am J Epidemiol 2021;
190:403-412. [PMID:
32902632 DOI:
10.1093/aje/kwaa197]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/23/2019] [Revised: 09/02/2020] [Accepted: 09/04/2020] [Indexed: 12/23/2022] Open
Abstract
Rates of incident treatment were quantified in this study for diabetes mellitus, hypertension, and venous thromboembolism (VTE) associated with oral glucocorticoid exposure in children aged 1-18 years. The retrospective cohort included more than 930,000 children diagnosed with autoimmune diseases (namely, inflammatory bowel disease, juvenile idiopathic arthritis, or psoriasis) or a nonimmune comparator condition (attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder) identified using US Medicaid claims (2000-2010). Associations of glucocorticoid dose per age- and sex-imputed weight with incident treated diabetes, hypertension, and VTE were estimated using Cox regression models. Crude rates were lowest for VTE (unexposed: 0.5/million person-days (95% confidence interval (CI): 0.4, 0.6); currently exposed: 15.6/million person-days (95% CI: 11.8, 20.1)) and highest for hypertension (unexposed: 6.7/million person-days (95% CI: 6.5, 7.0); currently exposed: 74.4/million person-days (95% CI: 65.7, 83.9)). Absolute rates for all outcomes were higher in unexposed and exposed children with autoimmune diseases compared with those with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Strong dose-dependent relationships were found between current glucocorticoid exposure and all outcomes (adjusted hazard ratios for high-dose glucocorticoids: for diabetes mellitus, 5.93 (95% CI: 3.94, 8.91); for hypertension, 19.13 (95% CI: 15.43, 23.73); for VTE, 16.16 (95% CI: 8.94, 29.22)). These results suggest strong relative risks, but low absolute risks, of newly treated VTE, diabetes, and especially hypertension in children taking high-dose oral glucocorticoids.
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