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Oct 19, 2023Keywords:
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Material submitted for publication in the Journal of Endocrinology, Metabolism and Diabetes of South Africa (JEMDSA) is accepted provided it has not been published elsewhere. JEMDSA reserves copyright of the material published. Neither JEMDSA nor the Publisher may be held responsible for statements made by the authors.
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Incidence and predictors of diabetes mellitus among severe COVID-19 patients in western Ethiopia: A retrospective cohort study
Abstract
Background: Evidence reported a high occurrence of diabetes mellitus (DM) during the time of COVID-19. This study aimed to assess the incidence of DM and its predictors among severe COVID-19 patients admitted to the treatment centre of Wollega University Referral Hospital (WURH), western Ethiopia.
Methods: A facility-based retrospective cohort study was conducted among severe COVID-19 patients diagnosed using the rRT-PCR from September 30, 2020, to June 10, 2021. EpiData version 3.2 was used for data entry, and STATA version 14 for analysis. A Cox proportional hazard regression analysis was used to determine factors associated with DM. A multivariable Cox regression model with 95% CI and adjusted hazard ratio (AHR) was used to identify a significant predictor of the incidence of DM at p-value < 0.05.
Results: A total of 304 patient cards with complete data were included in the final analysis. The mean age of the participants was 43.3 (SD ± 16.9) years. Of the total 304 patients admitted with severe COVID-19, 14.5% were newly diagnosed with DM with an overall incidence rate of 13.7 per 1 000 person days’ observation (PDO). The median time to occurrence of DM was 11 days (95% CI 7, 13) days. Age > 41 years (AHR = 2.54, 95% CI 1.15, 5.57), living in urban (AHR = 2.49, 95% CI 1.12, 5.52) and loss of appetite (AHR = 2.24, 95% CI 1.16, 4.34) increased the hazard of DM incidence, while presenting to the health facility after two days of clinical manifestation (AHR = 0.49, 95% CI 0.23, 0.96) decreased the risk of developing DM.
Conclusions: The incidence rate of DM among patients admitted with severe COVID-19 in the study area was found to be 13.7 per 1 000 person days’ observation. Higher age, urban residence, early presentation to a health facility and loss of appetite were independent predictors of DM incidence. Therefore, we recommend early detection of DM and frequent monitoring of blood glucose for patients diagnosed with COVID-19.
