COVID-19 and Diabetes Mellitus: Are there any Differences in Outcomes with Anti-Diabetic Drugs?

Aim: This study aims to analyze the effect of diabetes and diabetes drugs on the outcome of COVID-19 patients. Material and Methods: All the patients with diabetes hospitalized for COVID-19 between March 15, 2020 and June 15, 2020 at Istanbul University Faculty of Medicine were screened. Outcomes of the patients were compared with patients without diabetes. Results: Among six hundred fourteen patients (59.8% male, n=367) there were 151 patients with diabetes (24.5%). Patients with diabetes were hospitalized longer than patients without (12.1±10.3 vs. 10.2±7.3, p=0.037 in days), had higher intensive care unit (ICU) hospitalization rate (20.5% (n=31) vs. 12.0% (n=56), p=0.016, OR:1.8 (1.1-2.9)) and mortality rate (15.8% (n=24) vs. 7.7% (n=36, p=0.007), OR:2.1(1.2-3.8)). There was no difference in admission to ICU between patients who use metformin, basal insulin or bolus insulin regarding admission to ICU compared to patients who don’t (p= 0.32, p=0.22 and p=0.64, respectively). No patient on sodium-glucose co-transporter-2 treatment was treated in ICU. Death rate didn’t differ between patients regarding their treatment modalities. Conclusion: Patients with diabetes had worse outcomes than non-diabetic patients, and according to our findings and no anti-diabetic drug has a beneficial or harmful effect.