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Oral Steroids for the Treatment of Autoimmune Diseases Augments Risk for High Blood Pressure, Blood Clot and Diabetes in Children, Study Suggests

Jan, 2021 - By WMR

According to a new study initiated by the researchers of Rutgers University have suggested that children who intake oral steroids for the treatment of asthma or autoimmune diseases such as inflammatory bowel disease, juvenile arthritis or psoriasis are at higher risk for high blood pressure, diabetes, and blood clots. In this study, researchers evaluated the records of over 933,000 U.S.-based children with or without autoimmune diseases of age group of 1 to 18 years. Among those, about two in three children had asthma and received steroids as medication.

Daniel Horton, study author stated, “The rates of diabetes, high blood pressure and blood clots from oral steroids have been studied in large populations of adults. However, there are reasons to think these findings might be different in children, who not only tend to take steroids differently than adults but also have much lower baseline risks of developing these same cardiovascular and metabolic conditions. This study allowed us to put numbers on the association between oral steroids and rare, but potentially serious, complications in children”.

Moreover, researchers noted that children who consumed high steroid doses experienced aforementioned complications at higher rate, in comparison to children with low doses of steroids. Furthermore, researchers also reported that amongst all the aforementioned complications, there was high evidence of high blood pressure with steroid treatment and these complications were more prevalent among children suffering from autoimmune diseases.

Researchers also reported that majority of the children receiving courses of steroids for conditions including asthma, for a brief period of time will not encounter these complications.