Factors contributing to glycemic control in diabetes mellitus patients complying with home quarantine during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) epidemic

•Glycemic control may be affected during the epidemic of COVID-19.•The factors affecting glycemic control in patients with type 2 diabetes included age, education level, glucose monitoring equipment availability, medication adherence and the frequency of self-monitoring of blood glucose.•During the pandemic, diabetes self-management education should focus on medication adherence and glucose monitoring. This study assessed factors contributing to glycemic control among diabetes mellitus patients complying with home quarantine during the epidemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). We conducted an analytical cross-sectional study by telephone with 1159 patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and 96 patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) who were discharged from the endocrinology department of a hospital from January 1, 2019, to January 24, 2020. According to their fasting blood glucose (FBG) and 2-h postprandial BG (2hPBG) values, the patients were divided into the well-controlled BG group and the poorly controlled BG group. The main evaluation indicators included sociodemographic variables, health risk variables and adherence to self-management behaviors. In total, 74.46% of the T2DM patients and 64.89% of the T1DM patients had poor glycemic control. T2DM patients with poor glycemic control were more likely to be older (odds ratio (OR): 1.017 [95% confidence interval (CI) 1.003–1.030]; P = 0.013), have fewer than 12 years of education (OR: 1.646 [95% CI 1.202–2.255]; P = 0.002), lack a BG meter at home (OR: 2.728 [95% CI 1.205–6.179]; P = 0.016), have a lower degree of medicationcompliance (OR: 1.627 [95% CI 1.076–2.460]; P = 0.021), and engage in less self-monitoring of BG (SMBG) per week (OR: 10.884 [95% CI 5.883–20.139]; P