Impact of diabetes mellitus and co-morbidities on mortality in patients with COVID-19: A single-center retrospective study

Objectives: To describe the effect of diabetes mellitus (DM) on clinical outcomes of patients admitted with COVID-19 infection.

Methods: We carried out a single center, observational, retrospective study. We included adult patients with laboratory-confirmed diagnosis of COVID-19 admitted to a tertiary hospital in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, from April 2020 to December 2020. Electronic medical records were reviewed for demographics, clinical status, hospital course, and outcome; and they were compared between the patients with or without DM.

Results: Out of 198 patients included in the study, 86 (43.4%) were diabetic and 112 (56.5%) were non-diabetic. Majority of the patients were males 139 (70.2%) with a mean age of 54.14±14.89 years. In-hospital mortality rate was higher in diabetic patients than in non-diabetic patients (40 vs. 32; p=0.011). The most common comorbidity was hypertension (n=95, 48%) followed by ischemic heart disease (n=35, 17.7%), chronic kidney disease (n=17, 9.6%), and bronchial asthma (n=10, 5.1%).

Conclusion: The risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection is higher among diabetic patients; particularly, those with preexisting co-morbidities or geriatric patients. Diabetic patients are prone to a severe clinical course of COVID-19 and a significantly higher mortality rate.