Incidence of diabetes mellitus in a population‐based cohort of persons with chronic hepatitis B virus infection

To investigate the effect of hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection on the development of diabetes mellitus (DM), we compared DM incidence and characteristics of Alaska Native persons with and without HBV infection. From 1990 to 2010, there were 52 incident DM cases among 1309 persons with infection vs 4557 DM cases among 85 698 persons without infection (log-rank test, P = 0.20). Compared to infected persons without DM, those with DM were significantly older (57.0 vs 47.4 years, P < 0.001) and had higher body mass index (34.5 vs 28.4 kg/m(2) , P < 0.001). Genotype, immune active disease and the presence of cirrhosis were not associated with DM. In this population-based cohort with over 20 years of follow-up, there was no effect of HBV infection on DM development.