More studies are being published into the clear link between diabetes and covid-19 and the dangers for people with diabetes who survive the virus suffering severe long-term adverse health effects.
Studies from China, UK, Italy and the USA, have shown that people with diabetes have a higher risk of more adverse outcomes from COVID‐19 compared with people without diabetes. There is as yet no conclusive evidence of a difference between type 1 and type 2 diabetes.
Using data from the COVID patient notification system, UK investigators have studied the relative and absolute risk of in‐hospital related death with‐19 in people with type 1 and type 2 diabetes. There were 23,804 hospital deaths with COVID‐19 in England reported to 11th May 2020. Overall, one third of these deaths occurred in people with diabetes.
Adjusted for age, sex, deprivation, ethnicity and geographical regions, people with type 1 and type 2 diabetes had 3.5 and 2.03 times the relative risk of dying in hospital from COVID‐19 compared to those without diabetes.
Age remains a major factor for people with diabetes at risk of death with COVID‐19. Mean age of death in type 1 diabetes was 72 years and type 2 diabetes was 77.9 years.
Additional important factors which increase the risk of in‐patient death with COVID‐19 in the UK are social deprivation, British Asian Minority ethnic (BAME) group and the presence of comorbidities such as coronary heart disease, cardiovascular disease and heart failure.