One in five diabetic patients hospitalized with COVID-19 dies within 28 days of admission, according to an ongoing study, according to numerous sources.
The study from the University of Nantes in France also found that one in eight diabetes patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19, 28 days after being admitted, was still in hospital. The results comes from the CORONADO study analyzing the outcomes of patients with diabetes admitted to hospital with COVID-19, according to a news release from the medical journal Diabetologia, published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).
A woman with diabetes uses a glucometer to measure the glycemia in her blood on March 24, 2020 in Paris, on the eighth day of a strict lockdown in France aimed at spreading COVID-19, which was new coronavirus is caused. (Photo by FRANCK FIFE / AFP via Getty Images)
The results are an update of the study, which published preliminary results in May 2020, which showed that 10% of patients with diabetes and COVID-19 died within 7 days after hospitalization, although the previous results of a smaller sample size is. (RELATED: More deaths than expected this year – but not just because of the Coronavirus)
The latest findings are from 2,796 patients with diabetes, of which 577 deceased within 28 days of hospitalization. Nearly 50% of patients were discharged from the hospital, with an average duration of 9 days. On day 28, 12% of the patients were still admitted to the hospital, while 17% were transferred to other facilities.
Although it is unclear whether people with diabetes are more likely to get COVID-19 than the general population, people with diabetes are more likely to have severe complications of COVID-19, according to the American Diabetes Association. People with additional health conditions are at greater risk for complications if they are infected with the virus.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recommended that people with high-risk medical conditions be among the priority groups in the explosion of vaccines. Among the conditions that the CDC contains is type 2 diabetes. Type 1 diabetes is classified as a lower risk than type 2 diabetes, which the ADA in a letter to the CDC urging both medical conditions to be equally risky for patients infected with COVID-19.
In 2018, 10.5% of the U.S. population, or 34.2 million people, had diabetes. Of the 34.2 million adults with diabetes, 7.3 million were ADA.