Patients with diabetes are at higher risk for severe illness from COVID-19

Abstract

The World Health Organization recently declared the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 disease (COVID-19) a global pandemic (1). It is known that people with diabetes have a higher overall risk of infection resulting from multiple perturbations of innate immunity (2). Presently, it remains uncertain whether people with diabetes are also at higher risk of infection and, especially, at greater severity of illness associated with COVID-19. A recent meta-analysis of 30 observational studies (most of which were preprint studies that have yet to be reviewed) showed that pre-existing diabetes is significantly associated with poorer in-hospital outcomes (3), but none of the included studies have examined whether the impact of diabetes on COVID-19 severity is independent of age, sex and metabolic comorbidities, such as obesity and hypertension. Therefore, in this retrospective study, we aimed to examine the association between diabetes and severity of COVID-19 illness (irrespective of metabolic comorbidities) among in-patients with confirmed COVID-19.

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ORCID for Christopher Byrne: orcid.org/0000-0001-6322-7753

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