OBJECTIVES: By January 6, 2021, 7,812,007 cases and 197,777 deaths in total have been confirmed in Brazil, suggesting that the overall death rate of COVID-19 was 2.6%. Diabetes is the most common comorbidities in adult patients infected with Severe Acute Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and has been associated with increased mortality. This study analyzed the mortality of hospitalized COVID-19 patients with diabetes.

METHODS: 654 patients with COVID-19, including 81 diabetic patients and 573 nondiabetic patients from March to December/2020, were registered. Administrative data from hospitalizations reimbursed by the health plan were analyzed. Dependent variable: mortality rate (MR) of both groups had the number of deaths as a numerator and the number of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 in the period as denominator. Independent variables: age and sex. The main outcome was mortality by the SARS-CoV2. Statistical: Microsoft Excel® v2010 and Qlik Sense® v13.21 were used for relative and absolute frequencies, means and standard deviation (95% confidence intervals, significance when p<0.05).

RESULTS: From the total number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients, 50.6% were male and 49.4% female. The median age was 64.3 years. Approximately 12.4% of patients had diabetes. The mortality rate in diabetic patients was 28.4% and 18.0% in nondiabetic patients, with a pooled Odds Ratio of 1.81 (95% CI 1.07 – 3.07; p < 0.05). When comparing the rate by sex, mortality in diabetic men was higher than in women (21.1% and 17.3%, respectively; p > 0.05).

CONCLUSIONS: This study suggests that diabetes are associated with an increased risk of COVID-19-related in-hospital death confirming a need for close monitoring of diabetic patients during hospitalization. Increased COVID-19-related mortality usually was associated with cardiovascular and renal complications of diabetes. Diabetes requires uninterrupted treatment, so Healthcare System must take steps to ensure access to the care it needs.