Prevalence and Prognostic Impact of Diabetes Mellitus in Hospitalized COVID-19 Patients: A Monocentric Study From...

Background COVID-19 has been a fatal pandemic in modern history, with diabetes mellitus (DM) as a common comorbidity. However, data on the effect of DM on Indian COVID-19 patients are still scarce. We aimed to evaluate the prevalence and prognostic impact of DM in COVID-19 patients hospitalized at Index Medical College Hospital and Research Center (IMCHRC), Indore, Madhya Pradesh. Methods This is a retrospective monocentric observational study including all consecutive adult COVID-19 patients admitted to our center from July 2021 to March 2022. Data including demographics, clinical features, DM history, laboratory investigations, comorbidities, disease severity, intensive care unit (ICU) admission, invasive fungal infections, multi-organ dysfunction, and death were retrieved from the medical records of the patients and analyzed. Results A total of 357 COVID-19 patients (236 males) with a mean age of 52+9.7 years were evaluated. The overall prevalence of DM in the patients was 32% (115/357), comprising of 23% (83/357) cases of pre-existing DM and 9% (32/357) cases of new onset of DM. Vascular comorbidities consisting of hypertension (62% vs 27%; p=0.002), cardiovascular disease (39% vs 21%; p=0.016), and kidney disease (42% vs 27%; p=0.019) were significantly associated with DM. Diabetic versus non-diabetic COVID-19 patients had a higher rate of ICU admission (23% vs 10%; p=0.042), severe disease (43% [49/115] vs 5% [13/242]; p=0.002), acute respiratory distress syndrome (25% vs 7%), secondary infections (30% vs 11%; p=0.033), multi-organ dysfunction (16% vs 9%; p=0.045), and in-hospital mortality (21% [24/115] vs 6% [15/242]; p=0.011). Conclusions Our study shows a high prevalence of DM in COVID-19 patients and an adverse effect of DM on the prognosis of COVID-19 patients including increased disease severity and in-hospital mortality.