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NewsA new Danish study found that COVID-19 infection is linked to a reduced risk of developing type 1 diabetes (T1D) in people under 30 — but only in unvaccinated women, and only within a specific window after infection. Researchers stress the findings are observational and can't confirm a causal link. The study was presented at the 2025 EASD annual meeting in Milan.
A surprising finding out of Denmark suggests that COVID-19 infection may actually lower the risk of developing type 1 diabetes (T1D) in young adults. Researchers from Copenhagen University Hospital analyzed data from over 2,100 individuals diagnosed with T1D before age 30 and nearly 11,000 matched controls, finding that SARS-CoV-2 infection was associated with a modest but statistically significant reduction in T1D risk.
The protective effect, however, came with notable caveats — it was only observed in unvaccinated individuals and only in females, not males. The risk reduction was also time-limited, appearing exclusively in the 31–180 day window following infection. No differences were seen across viral variants or age groups within the under-30 cohort.
The authors caution that the study is observational, meaning causation cannot be established. Still, the use of Denmark's high-quality national registries and near-complete PCR test coverage lends the findings credibility.
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Why it matters: This study adds a nuanced twist to the COVID-T1D conversation — while prior research flagged COVID-19 as a potential trigger for diabetes, this Danish data points in the opposite direction for a specific subset of young people. Understanding these immune interactions could open new avenues for T1D prevention research.
