Investigation of Risk Factors for Hospitalization of COVID-19 Patients with Diabetes in Najaf, Iraq

Preliminary findings indicate that patients with diabetes mellitus (DM) are at additional risk of infecting with COVID-19 caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), which is associated with increased mortality in these patients. Hyperglycemia can affect inflammatory and immune responses, which leads patients to severe COVID-19 consequences. The present study investigated risk factors for hospitalized COVID-19 patients with DM in Najaf, Iraq. 127 patients with positive PCR tests were selected from Al-Hakeem Hospital and Al-Sadr Teaching Hospital. Demographic characteristics and laboratory data were collected to compare patients with and without DM. Chi-squared test followed by odds ratio calculations were used to investigate the risk factors associated with hospitalization of COVID-19 patients with or without DM in the ICU and RCU. Analysis of the relationship between risk factors indicated that age above 65 years, high BMI, hypertension, respiratory rate> 24 BPM, CVD, blood sugar> 180 mg/dl, D-dimer> 1000, ALT> 50 and AST> 40 U/L were independent risk factors for hospitalized COVID-19 patients with DM (P≤0.05). Therefore, investigating these factors may detect the risk of infection with COVID-19 in patients with DM in advance. Physicians should further consider risk factors to discover a targeted intervention to improve clinical efficacy.