Short-term impact of COVID-19 lockdown on metabolic control of patients with well-controlled type 2 diabetes: a single-centre observational study
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Edoardo Biancalana1, Federico Parolini1, Alessandro Mengozzi1
1Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Pisa, Via Roma 67, 56126, Pisa, Italy.
Aims/Hypothesis:
The strict rules applied in Italy during the recent COVID-19 pandemic, with the prohibition to attend any regular outdoor activity, are likely to influence the degree of metabolic control in patients with type 2 diabetes. We explored such putative effect immediately after the resolution of lockdown rules, in the absence of any variation of pharmacologic treatment.
Methods:
One-hundred and fourteen patients with adequate metabolic control took part in this single-centre, prospective, observational study. The metabolic profile tested 1 week after the end of the lockdown was compared with the last value and the mean of the last three determinations performed before the pandemic emergency (from 6 months to 2 years before).
Results:
After 8 weeks of lockdown, an increase of HbA1c > 0.3% (mean +0.7%) was observed in 26% of the participants; these were also characterized by a persistent elevation in serum triglycerides able to predict the worsening of glucose control.
Conclusions:
Lockdown determined a relevant short-term metabolic worsening in approximately one-fourth of previously well-controlled type 2 diabetic individuals; pre-lockdown triglycerides were the only parameter able to predict such derangement of glucose control.
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