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SYSTEMATIC REVIEW article

Front. Med.
Sec. Infectious Diseases: Pathogenesis and Therapy
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmed.2025.1523139

The clinical features and outcomes of diabetes patients infected with COVID-19: A systematic review and meta-analysis comprising 192693 patients

Provisionally accepted
Hong Qiao Hong Qiao 1*Kai Liu Kai Liu 1Shu Liu Shu Liu 2Ting-Ting Xu Ting-Ting Xu 1
  • 1 The Second Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University, Harbin, China
  • 2 The Fourth Hospital of Harbin Medical University, Harbin, Heilongjiang Province, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    We sought to explore the relevance of analyses that include critical laboratory parameters and drug treatment, clinical characteristics of diabetic patients who are infected with COVID-19, to the development of individualized treatment strategies for diabetic patients infected with COVID-19.We searched Cochrane, Embase, FMRS, Pubmed, Springer, Web of Science databases for systematic reviews and meta-analyses to estimate the clinical characteristics and prognosis of confirmed covid-19 infections in patients with and without diabetes.Results: Our meta-analysis included a total of 32 studies with 192,693 COVID-19 patients. Common comorbidities in the diabetic group were hypertension, cerebrovascular disease, chronic kidney disease and cardiovascular disease. We discovered that white blood cell count, neutrophil count, inflammatory marker levels, D-dimer, urea, precursor of the brain natriuretic peptide (Pro-BNP) increased and lymphocyte count, estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR), albumin decreased significantly in the diabetic group in laboratory test results. Compared with the non-diabetic group, the diabetic group had a higher incidence of complications in acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), shock, acute heart injury, acute kidney injury and more regularly used oxygen therapy, invasive ventilation, non-invasive ventilation, continuous renal replacement therapy (CRRT), extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) treatment. Mortality and intensive care unit(ICU) hospitalization rates were highest in the diabetic group than in the non-diabetic group (P <0.05).Conclusions: Diabetic patients hospitalized with COVID-19 have an increased risk of death, lower discharge rates, and higher ICU admission rates. Their presence of hypertension, cerebrovascular disease, chronic kidney disease (CKD), higher levels of inflammatory markers. Multiple complications are all predictors of poor outcomes in people with diabetes. Our findings will help identify elevated risk factors in diabetics, which will benefit early prediction.

    Keywords: COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, diabetes, Mortality, Clinical features, Meta-analysis

    Received: 12 Nov 2024; Accepted: 09 Jan 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Qiao, Liu, Liu and Xu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Hong Qiao, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University, Harbin, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.