Frequency of Diabetes Mellitus and Newly Diagnosed Hyperglycemia and Their Impacts on Hospitalized COVID-19 Patients

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and its associated morbidities are a great global concern. Diabetes mellitus (DM) is associated with adverse clinical outcomes and high mortality in patients with COVID-19.

This study examined the frequency of DM, newly diagnosed hyperglycemia, and their impacts on hospitalized patients with COVID-19.

This retrospective study examined 810 medical records of PCR-confirmed COVID-19 patients admitted to Razi Hospital, Ahvaz, Iran. The clinical presentations, severity, and impacts of COVID-19 were compared between patients with and without DM. Disease severity was determined based on the NEWS2 scoring system.

This study included 810 medical records of COVID-19 patients, of whom 326 had pre-existing DM, and 484 were non-DM. The rates of diabetes and newly diagnosed hyperglycemia were 40.2% and 11.2%, respectively. The most common underlying diseases were hypertension (35.3%), ischemic heart disease (17.9%), and chronic kidney disease (11.9%), which were higher in people with diabetes than non-diabetics. The rate of acute kidney injury was higher in patients with diabetes than in non-diabetics (30.7% vs. 19.2%; P < 0.001) and in patients with severe COVID-19 than in those whose disease was not severe (27.8% vs. 21.5%; P = 0.04). The rates of severe COVID-19 (46.3% vs. 34.7%; P = 0.093), ICU admission (40.7% vs. 27.4%; P = 0.012), and mortality (18.5% vs. 10.5%; P = 0.079) were higher in patients with newly diagnosed hyperglycemia than in euglycemic patients.

This study showed that COVID-19 infection is linked with newly diagnosed hyperglycemia and pre-existing DM, both associated with severe COVID-19, more need for ICU admission, and mortality.