Clinical characteristics and outcomes of diabetics hospitalized for COVID-19 infection: a single-centered, retrospective, observational study

Some debates exist regarding the association of diabetes mellitus (DM) with COVID-19 infection severity and mortality. In this study, we aimed to describe and compare the clinical characteristics and outcomes of hospitalized COVID-19 patients with and without DM. In this single-centered, retrospective, observational study, we enrolled adult patients with COVID-19 who were admitted to the Shariati hospital, Tehran, Iran, from February 25, 2020, to April 21, 2020. The clinical and paraclinical information as well as the clinical outcomes of patients were collected from inpatient medical records. A total of 353 cases were included (mean age, 61.67 years; 57.51 % male), of whom 111 patients were diabetics (mean age, 63.66 years; 55.86 % male). In comparison to those without DM, diabetic patients with COVID-19 were more likely to have other comorbidities, elevated systolic blood pressure (SBP), elevated blood sugar (BS), lower estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) and elevated blood urea nitrogen (BUN). The association of DM with severe outcomes of COVID-19 infection (i.e. mechanical ventilation, median length of hospital stay and mortality) remained non-significant before and after adjustments for several factors including age, sex, body mass index (BMI), smoking status, and comorbidities. Based on our results DM has not been associated with worse outcomes in hospitalized patients for COVID-19 infection.