Diabetes is associated with increased risk for in-hospital mortality in patients with COVID-19: a systematic review and meta-analysis comprising 18,506 patients

Purpose: Infectious diseases are more frequent and can be associated with worse outcomes in patients with diabetes. The aim of this study was to systematically review and conduct a meta-analysis of the available observational studies reporting the effect of diabetes on mortality among hospitalized patients with COVID-19.

Methods: The Medline, Embase, Google Scholar, and medRxiv databases were reviewed for identification of eligible studies. A random effects model meta-analysis was used, and I² was utilized to assess the heterogeneity. In-hospital mortality was defined as the endpoint. Sensitivity, subgroup, and meta-regression analyses were performed.

Results: A total of 18,506 patients were included in this meta-analysis (3713 diabetics and 14,793 non-diabetics). Patients with diabetes were associated with a higher risk of death compared with patients without diabetes (OR 1.65; 95% CI 1.35-1.96; I² 77.4%). The heterogeneity was high. A study-level meta-regression analysis was performed for all the important covariates, and no significant interactions were found between the covariates and the outcome of mortality.

Conclusion: This meta-analysis shows that that the likelihood of death seems to be higher in diabetic patients hospitalized with COVID-19 compared with non-diabetic patients. Further studies are needed to assess whether this association is independent or not, as well as to investigate the role of adequate glycemic control prior to infection with COVID-19.