ABSTRACT
Background:Diabetes Mellitus has been shown to be a risk factor for severe COVID-19 disease. Few studies asse ssed effect of diabetes on the outcome exclusively in moderate to severe COVID 19 disease. Objective: To compare the clinical characteristics and outcome of hospitalized moderate and severe COVID-19 disease among patients with and without diabetes. Material And Methods:This retrospective study was conducted at Parul Sevashram Hospital from 1stApril 2021-30thApril 2021. Data on demographic profile, clinical symptoms, laboratory findings, complications and clinical outcome was collected and compared between patients with and without diabetes.Result:Total 319 patients were included with mean age 54.81±11.72 years. 28.5% had diabetes. The most common symptoms were fever, cough and shortness of breath. As compared to patients without diabetes, these patients had significantly higher levels of leucocyte count, CRP, Ferritin, LDH and D-Dimer. They also had more complications like ARDS, secondary infection and stroke and higher need of respiratory support (92.3% vs. 69.7%, P < 0.001). We also observed significantly greater mortality in patients with diabetes compared to those without diabetes (29.7% vs. 13.6%; P = 0.0014). These findings held true even on comparingpatients with only diabetes as comorbidity to those without any comorbidity.Conclusion:The study confirms that diabetes is an independent risk factor for higher inflammatory markers, risk of complications and in hospital mortality during hospitalization with moderate to severe COVID 19. New strategies are needed for more aggressive management of COVID 19 cases with diabetes to improve prognosis in these cases.