The first study of COVID-19 to specifically analyse the effect of the disease in hospitalised patients with diabetes has found that one in ten patients dies within 7 days of hospital admission, and one in five is intubated and mechanically ventilated by this point. The research is published in Diabetologia (the journal of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes [EASD]), by Professor Bertrand Cariou and Professor Samy Hadjadj, diabetologists at l'institut du thorax, University Hospital Nantes, INSERM, CNRS, and University of Nantes, France, and colleagues.
The study shows that two thirds (65%) of COVID-19 patients with diabetes admitted to hospital are men, and the average age of all patients is 70 years. Worse blood sugar control did not seem to impact a patient's outcome, however the presence of diabetic complications and increasing age increase the risk of death, and increased BMI is associated with both increased risk of needing mechanical ventilation and with increased risk of death.
