Diabetes as a risk factor for greater COVID-19 severity and in-hospital death: A meta-analysis of observational studies

• Published in: Nutrition, metabolism, and cardiovascular diseases metabolism, and cardiovascular diseases, 2020-07, Vol.30 (8), p.1236-1248
• Main Authors: Mantovani, Alessandro, Byrne, Christopher D., Zheng, Ming-Hua, Targher, Giovanni
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Betacoronavirus; Coronavirus disease 2019; Coronavirus Infections - epidemiology; Coronavirus Infections - mortality; COVID-19; Diabetes; Diabetes Complications - mortality; Female; Hospital Mortality; Humans; Male; Meta-analysis; Middle Aged; Observational Studies as Topic; Pandemics; Pneumonia, Viral - epidemiology; Pneumonia, Viral - mortality; SARS-CoV-2; Severity of Illness Index
• ISSN: 0939-4753; 1590-3729
• DOI: 10.1016/j.numecd.2020.05.014

To estimate the prevalence of established diabetes and its association with the clinical severity and in-hospital mortality associated with COVID-19. We systematically searched PubMed, Scopus and Web of Science, from 1st January 2020 to 15th May 2020, for observational studies of patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19. Meta-analysis was performed using random-effects modeling. A total of 83 eligible studies with 78,874 hospitalized patients with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 were included. The pooled prevalence of established diabetes was 14.34% (95% CI 12.62–16.06%). However, the prevalence of diabetes was higher in non-Asian vs. Asian countries (23.34% [95% CI 16.40–30.28] vs. 11.06% [95% CI 9.73–12.39]), and in patients aged ≥60 years vs. those aged