Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic and Control Measures on Screening and Diagnoses of Type 2 Diabetes in British Columbia

Bushra Mahmood (), Gordon Li, Julia Li, James Wilton, Tricia S. Tang, Héctor Alexander Velásquez García, Stanley Wong, Akshay B. Jain, Zaeema Naveed, Arun Garg, Amandeep Nandra, Naveed Zafar Janjua and Geoffrey McKee
Additional contact information
Bushra Mahmood: Division of Endocrinology, Department of Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V5Z 1M9, Canada
Gordon Li: Provincial Health Services Authority, Vancouver, BC V6H 4C1, Canada
Julia Li: British Columbia Center for Disease Control (BCCDC), Vancouver, BC V5Z 4R4, Canada
James Wilton: British Columbia Center for Disease Control (BCCDC), Vancouver, BC V5Z 4R4, Canada
Tricia S. Tang: Division of Endocrinology, Department of Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V5Z 1M9, Canada
Héctor Alexander Velásquez García: British Columbia Center for Disease Control (BCCDC), Vancouver, BC V5Z 4R4, Canada
Stanley Wong: British Columbia Center for Disease Control (BCCDC), Vancouver, BC V5Z 4R4, Canada
Akshay B. Jain: TLC Diabetes and Endocrinology, Surrey, BC V3T 0P8, Canada
Zaeema Naveed: British Columbia Center for Disease Control (BCCDC), Vancouver, BC V5Z 4R4, Canada
Arun Garg: Fraser Health, Surrey, BC V3T 0H1, Canada
Amandeep Nandra: British Columbia Cancer Agency, Surrey, BC V3V 0E8, Canada
Naveed Zafar Janjua: British Columbia Center for Disease Control (BCCDC), Vancouver, BC V5Z 4R4, Canada
Geoffrey McKee: British Columbia Center for Disease Control (BCCDC), Vancouver, BC V5Z 4R4, Canada

IJERPH, 2025, vol. 22, issue 4, 1-18

Abstract: Introduction: In British Columbia (BC), Canada, COVID-19 and associated control measures impacted routine care for patients with diabetes. Some of these measures may have impacted timely screening and diagnosis of type 2 diabetes. We assessed the impact of control measures on screening and diagnosis of type 2 diabetes in BC. Methods: We used data from the BC COVID-19 Cohort, which includes COVID-19 and healthcare administrative data on all residents of BC. We assessed and compared screening (≥40 yrs) and diagnosis (≥18 yrs) of diabetes among the adult population during the pandemic period (1 April 2020–31 December 2022), with 1 January 2016–31 March 2020 used as a historical reference period. We used interrupted time series with generalized additive models to evaluate the impact of policy measures on screening and diagnoses trends. Results: We observed an initial decline in the mean number of screenings and diagnoses. In the third post-policy phase (January 2022–December 2022), there was a 4.8% (−5.1, 15.4) increase in screenings while after an initial reduction in diabetes diagnoses, we observed a significant increase of 31.6% (17.8, 46.6) in the third post-policy phase. Further stratification by age and sex showed the entire increase in diagnoses trends was driven by younger females with a 56.4% (25.1, 92.9) and 58.7% (38.2, 81.3) increment in diagnoses in the 18–29 and 40–49 age groups, respectively. Conclusions: The initial reduced number of screenings and diagnoses followed by the significant upward trend in diabetes diagnoses in the later post-policy phase have important clinical and public health implications. Further research is needed to understand the post-pandemic increase in diabetes among females.

Keywords: type 2 diabetes; COVID-19; pandemic; control-measures; health service delivery (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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