Mortality Rate and Related Risk Factors in Hospitalized Coronavirus Disease 2019 Patients with Diabetes: A Single-Center Study

The outbreak of the new coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is majorly threatening the health of people worldwide. Since patients with chronic diseases, including diabetes mellitus (DM), are among the main groups at risk of severe COVID-19; hence, this study was aimed to investigate the mortality rate of COVID-19 among patients with DM.

This cross-sectional study was performed on 211 DM patients with COVID-19 who were referred to Educational Kowsar Hospital in Semnan, Iran. After a definitive diagnosis of COVID-19, basic characteristics, including gender, weight, height, and clinical information (such as initial signs and symptoms, underlying diseases, complications during hospitalization, and type of treatment received) were collected.

The mean age of patients was 64.92±12.7 years, and 51.7% were male. Totally 20.9% of patients were expired. The most frequent underlying diseases were hypertension and ischemic heart disease. The simultaneous presence of cardiovascular diseases in DM patients with COVID-19 was correlated with a considerable mortality rate increment. Cough on arrival significantly predicted mortality reduction to less than one-third (P=0.009). Also, oxygen saturation of less than 90% on arrival was a significant predictor of an increase in mortality by more than double (P<0.001).

According to the results of multivariate logistic regression, it was found that DM can increment the probability of contracting COVID-19, and the rate of mortality was also higher in these patients.