Quantifying association and disparities between diabetes complications and COVID-19 outcomes: A retrospective study using electronic health records
Authors: Paramita Ni Luh Putu S. P. , Agor Joseph K. , Mayorga Maria E. , Ivy Julie S. , Miller Kristen E. , Ozaltin Osman Y. 
Published: September 2023

Background

Despite established relationships between diabetic status and an increased risk for COVID-19 severe outcomes, there is a limited number of studies examining the relationships between diabetes complications and COVID-19-related risks. We use the Adapted Diabetes Complications Severity Index to define seven diabetes complications. We aim to understand the risk for COVID-19 infection, hospitalization, mortality, and longer length of stay of diabetes patients with complications.

Methods

We perform a retrospective case-control study using Electronic Health Records (EHRs) to measure differences in the risks for COVID-19 severe outcomes amongst those with diabetes complications. Using multiple logistic regression, we calculate adjusted odds ratios (OR) for COVID-19 infection, hospitalization, and in-hospital mortality of the case group (patients with diabetes complications) compared to a control group (patients without diabetes). We also calculate adjusted mean difference in length of stay between the case and control groups using multiple linear regression.

Results

Adjusting demographics and comorbidities, diabetes patients with renal complications have the highest odds for COVID-19 infection (OR = 1.85, 95% CI = [1.71, 1.99]) while those with metabolic complications have the highest odds for COVID-19 hospitalization (OR = 5.58, 95% CI = [3.54, 8.77]) and in-hospital mortality (OR = 2.41, 95% CI = [1.35, 4.31]). The adjusted mean difference (MD) of hospital length-of-stay for diabetes patients, especially those with cardiovascular (MD = 0.94, 95% CI = [0.17, 1.71]) or peripheral vascular (MD = 1.72, 95% CI = [0.84, 2.60]) complications, is significantly higher than non-diabetes patients. African American patients have higher odds for COVID-19 infection (OR = 1.79, 95% CI = [1.66, 1.92]) and hospitalization (OR = 1.62, 95% CI = [1.39, 1.90]) than White patients in the general diabetes population. However, White diabetes patients have higher odds for COVID-19 in-hospital mortality. Hispanic patients have higher odds for COVID-19 infection (OR = 2.86, 95% CI = [2.42, 3.38]) and shorter mean length of hospital stay than non-Hispanic patients in the general diabetes population. Although there is no significant difference in the odds for COVID-19 hospitalization and in-hospital mortality between Hispanic and non-Hispanic patients in the general diabetes population, Hispanic patients have higher odds for COVID-19 hospitalization (OR = 1.83, 95% CI = [1.16, 2.89]) and in-hospital mortality (OR = 3.69, 95% CI = [1.18, 11.50]) in the diabetes population with no complications.

Conclusions

The presence of diabetes complications increases the risks of COVID-19 infection, hospitalization, and worse health outcomes with respect to in-hospital mortality and longer hospital length of stay. We show the presence of health disparities in COVID-19 outcomes across demographic groups in our diabetes population. One such disparity is that African American and Hispanic diabetes patients have higher odds of COVID-19 infection than White and Non-Hispanic diabetes patients, respectively. Furthermore, Hispanic patients might have less access to the hospital care compared to non-Hispanic patients when longer hospitalizations are needed due to their diabetes complications. Finally, diabetes complications, which are generally associated with worse COVID-19 outcomes, might be predominantly determining the COVID-19 severity in those infected patients resulting in less demographic differences in COVID-19 hospitalization and in-hospital mortality.