Profile and prognosis of patients hospitalized for COVID-19 virus infection with and without diabetes – An observational study from South India

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: We studied the profile and outcome of patients hospitalized for coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) infection with and without type 2 diabetes (T2DM). METHODS: In this observational study, clinical details of patients with COVID-19, identified by Reverse Transcription – Polymerase Chain Reaction admitted to 4 hospitals in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India were collected from May to November 2020. A total of 845 (n = 423 with diabetes, n = 422 without diabetes) were selected for the analysis. Clinical details, biochemical and radiological investigations, diabetes treatment, intensive care, mortality and other adverse outcomes were recorded. Patients with clinical history of T2DM, glycosylated haemoglobin (HbA1c) of ≥6.5% (48 mmol/mol) and/or random blood glucose ≥200 mg/dl (11.1 mmol/l) were included. Statistical analyses were done using chi-square or ‘t’ test and multiple logistic regression analysis. RESULTS: At admission, patients with T2DM were older (p < 0.0001), had higher co-morbidities such as coronary artery disease (p = 0.02), hypertension (p < 0.0001), hypothyroidism (p = 0.03) and renal disorders (p = 0.01) than non-diabetes persons. Requirement for intensive care was higher among them. Acute renal injury or failure, pneumonia and myocardial infarction developed in higher percentage of T2DM. Mortality was significantly higher in T2DM (10.2% vs 5.9%, p = 0.02). However, in the multiple logistic regression analysis, only age (p < 0.0001) and renal disorders (p = 0.002) were significantly associated with mortality. CONCLUSION: Our study showed that mortality was associated with higher age and renal disorders but did not show an association with diabetes, among patients hospitalized for COVID-19 infection.