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Risk of Severe COVID-19 Up Among Those With Diabetes

MONDAY, Dec. 14, 2020 -- Both type 1 and type 2 diabetes independently increase the adverse impacts of COVID-19, according to a study published online Dec. 2 in Diabetes Care.

Justin M. Gregory, M.D., from the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville, Tennessee, and colleagues used data from a regional health care network to understand the risk for COVID-19-related hospitalization and illness severity in patients with type 1 diabetes.

The researchers identified COVID-19 in 6,138 patients without diabetes, 40 with type 1 diabetes, and 273 patients with type 2 diabetes. People with type 1 diabetes had adjusted odds ratios of 3.90 for hospitalization and 3.35 for greater illness severity, compared to people not having diabetes, which was similar to risk among those with type 2 diabetes. Among patients with type 1 diabetes, illness severity was significantly associated with glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c), hypertension, race, recent diabetic ketoacidosis, health insurance status, and less diabetes technology use.

"Potentially modifiable factors (e.g., HbA1c) had significant but modest impact compared with comparatively static factors (e.g., race and insurance) in type 1 diabetes, indicating an urgent and continued need to mitigate severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 infection risk in this community," the authors write.

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Posted: December 2020