ABSTRACT
Most studies reported reduced health care use among people with diabetes during the COVID-19 pandemic. This may be due to restricted medical services or people avoiding health care services because they fear being infected with COVID-19 in health care facilities. The aim of our study was to analyse hospitalisation and mortality in people with and without diabetes in Germany during the COVID-19 pandemic year 2020 compared to 2017-2019. The data were sourced from a German statutory health insurance company covering 3.2 million people. We estimated age-sex standardised rates of mortality, all-cause hospitalisation, hospitalisation due to coronary heart disease (CHD), acute myocardial infarction (AMI), stroke, diabetic foot syndrome (DFS), and major and minor amputations in people with and without diabetes. We predicted rates for 2020 using Poisson regression based on results from 2017-2019 and compared these with the observed rates.In people with diabetes, the hospitalisation rate for major amputation was significantly increased, while all-cause hospitalisation rate and hospitalisation due to CHD, AMI and DFS were significantly decreased compared to the previous period. Moreover, we found a significantly increased mortality and hospitalisation rate for minor amputation in people without diabetes while all-cause hospitalisation and hospitalisation due to CHD and AMI was significantly lower during the COVID-19 pandemic year 2020.We observed changes in health care utilisation and outcomes during the COVID-19 pandemic compared to previous years in people with and without diabetes. Concerning diabetes care, the increase of hospitalisations due to amputation in people with diabetes with a simultaneous reduction in DFS needs special attention.