Endocrinology, Diabetes & Metabolism (Oct 2021)

Risk of mortality among inpatients with COVID‐19 and type 2 diabetes: National data from Kuwait

  • Ebaa Al‐Ozairi,
  • Rosemary Brown,
  • Yasmine Hamdan,
  • Lulwa Alabdullah,
  • Nia Voase,
  • Jumana Al Kandari,
  • Dalal Alsaeed,
  • Abdulla Al Ozairi,
  • Amal Hasan,
  • Fahd Al‐Mulla,
  • Srinivasa Vittal Katikireddi,
  • Stuart R. Gray,
  • Jason M. R. Gill,
  • Carlos A. Celis‐Morales,
  • Naveed Sattar,
  • Paul Welsh

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1002/edm2.287
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 4, no. 4
pp. n/a – n/a

Abstract

Read online

Abstract Introduction To investigate type 2 diabetes as a risk factor for COVID‐19 death following hospital admission in Kuwait. Methods A retrospective cohort study using data from a central hospital that cared for all hospitalized COVID‐19 patients in Kuwait. We investigated the association between type 2 diabetes, with COVID‐19 mortality using multiply imputed logistic regression and calculated the population attributable fraction. Results A total of 5333 patients were admitted with COVID‐19, of whom 244 died (4.6%). Diabetes prevalence was 24.8%, but 53.7% of those who died had diabetes. After adjusting for age, sex, ethnicity and other comorbidities, diabetes was associated with death (OR 1.70 [95% CI 1.23, 2.34]) and admission to the intensive care unit more than 3 days after initial admission (OR 1.78 [95% CI 1.17, 2.70]). Assuming causality, the population attributable fraction for type 2 diabetes in COVID‐19 death was 19.6% (95% CI 10.8, 35.6). Conclusion Type 2 diabetes is a strong risk factor for COVID‐19 death in the Middle East. Given the high prevalence of type 2 diabetes in the Middle East, as well as many Western countries, the public health implications are considerable.

Keywords