Impact of Diabetes on the Clinical outcome of COVID 19 Patients admitted in Tertiary Care Hospital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan

Abstract

In November 2019, a virus emerged in Wuhan City of China, named as novel coronavirus. Objective: To evaluate the impact of Diabetes on the clinical outcome of COVID 19 patients admitted in Isolation Units at Hayatabad Medical Complex Peshawar. Methods: This was a 6 months’ prospective longitudinal observational study. Diagnosis was made on the basis of positive PCR nasal and / or pharyngeal swabs, following the provisional guidelines of the World Health Organization. Diagnoses of diabetes was confirmed by medical history of the patient. Data regarding socio demographic aspects, comorbidities, hematological and biochemical findings, chest radiographic images, complications, length of stay, treatments and outcomes were collected from the hospital charts. All known Type 2 Diabetics above 40 years of age with positive PCR for COVID 19 infections were included regardless of gender. Type 1 diabetics and those with prior complications were excluded from the study. Results: The ANOVA table showed the overall model was statistically significant predictor ((Duration of diabetes, gender, education and age) of the outcome variable (length of stay in COVID isolation unit) with P value 0.004 reflecting that diabetes has significant impact on the outcome of COVID 19 patients. There was also significant association (chi-square P value .005) between complications developed and HbA1C levels of the admitted patients. Conclusions: Diabetes has significant impact on clinical outcome of Covid 19 patients in terms of complications, length of stay and mortality. The complex nature of both the diseases leaves the patient with high risk of developing complications and mortality.