COVID-19 May Be More Deadly for Individuals with Type 2 Diabetes

COVID-19 could be more deadly for some individuals with diabetes than others, results of a new study presented at the European Association for the Study of Diabetes show.

“According to several studies, patients with diabetic kidney disease have a chronic pro-inflammatory state and immune dysregulation, making it difficult to ‘fight off’ the virus compared to someone who has a properly working immune system,” Daniel Kevin Llanera, MD, of the Countess of Chester NHS Foundation Trust in England, said in a statement.

The study results show that individuals with type 2 diabetes were 2.5 more times likely to die within 7 days of admission to the hospital than individuals with type 1 diabetes.

However, individuals with diabetes were not more likely to contract COVID-19.

Investigators found that older individuals with high C-reactive protein (CRP) and individuals younger than aged 70 years with chronic kidney disease had a higher risk of death.

The study included 1004 individuals from 7 hospitals in northwest England. Nearly half had microvascular complications, and 56.2% had macrovascular complications of diabetes. Of those individuals 7.5% were admitted to the intensive care unit, and 24% of those died within 7 days of admission to the hospital.

About 9.8% of individuals required insulin infusions, and those who had the infusion were half as likely to die compared with those who did not need intravenous insulin.

Individuals who were younger than aged 70 years of with chronic kidney disease were 2.74 times more likely to die than those under 70 years of age without chronic kidney disease.

Older individuals with C-reactive protein had more than a three-fold risk of death by day 7.

“In order to help our patients with diabetes survive this pandemic, we needed to explore further what makes them at risk for worse outcomes,” Llanera said.“These results will allow other researchers and clinicians to find out how we can best intervene, allowing us to provide our patients with the most appropriate treatment.”

Reference

Study uncovers why COVID-19 is more deadly for some people with diabetes than others. EurekAlert. News release. September 28, 2021. Accessed September 29, 2021. https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/929651