The clinical profile and associated mortality in people with and without diabetes with Coronavirus disease 2019 on admission to acute hospital services

Introduction To assess if in adults with COVID‐19, whether those with diabetes and complications (DM+C) present with a more severe clinical profile and if that relates to increased mortality, compared to those with diabetes with no complications (DM‐NC) and those without diabetes. Methods Service‐level data was used from 996 adults with laboratory confirmed COVID‐19 who presented to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham, UK, from March to June 2020. All individuals were categorized into DM+C, DM‐NC, and non‐diabetes groups. Physiological and laboratory measurements in the first 5 days after admission were collated and compared among groups. Cox proportional hazards regression models were used to evaluate associations between diabetes status and the risk of mortality. Results Among the 996 individuals, 104 (10.4%) were DM+C, 295 (29.6%) DM‐NC and 597 (59.9%) non‐diabetes. There were 309 (31.0%) in‐hospital deaths documented, 40 (4.0% of total cohort) were DM+C, 99 (9.9%) DM‐NC and 170 (17.0%) non‐diabetes. Individuals with DM+C were more likely to present with high anion gap/metabolic acidosis, features of renal impairment, and low albumin/lymphocyte count than those with DM‐NC or those without diabetes. There was no significant difference in mortality rates among the groups: compared to individuals without diabetes, the adjusted HRs were 1.39 (95% CI 0.95–2.03, p = 0.093) and 1.18 (95% CI 0.90–1.54, p = 0.226) in DM+C and DM‐C, respectively. Conclusions Those with COVID‐19 and DM+C presented with a more severe clinical and biochemical profile, but this did not associate with increased mortality in this study. As people with diabetes are disproportionately affected by COVID‐19, there is a need to identify diabetes sub‐groups who could be at high risk of adverse outcomes when presenting to hospitals. Our real world study of people with diabetes and laboratory confirmed diagnoses of COVID‐19 uses service level data including biochemical markers for initial assessment. We compared these values and mortality levels in people with and without diabetes and hyperglycaemic complications. We found people with COVID‐19 and diabetes with existing complications presented with a more severe clinical and biochemical profile. However, the association between diabetic/hyperglycemic state in COVID‐19 and all cause‐mortality was not statistically significant in this study.