Undiagnosed diabetes contributed substantially to COVID-19 hospitalisation and deaths in many LMICs, including India: study

Undiagnosed diabetes contributed substantially to COVID-19 hospitalisations and deaths in many low- and middle-income countries

Undiagnosed diabetes contributed substantially to COVID-19 hospitalisations and deaths in many low- and middle-income countries (LMIC), including India, a new study published in the medical journal The Lancet said.

The study was supported, in part, by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and FIND, a global health non-profit based in Geneva. Eight LMICs were studied — Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, and South Africa.

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According to the study, while it is seen that patients with COVID-19 that had diagnosed chronic diseases — including diabetes — may experience higher rates of hospitalisation and mortality relative to the general population, the burden of undiagnosed co-morbidities during the pandemic, however, had not been adequately studied.

The study is titled ‘Estimates of hospitalisations and deaths in patients with COVID-19 associated with undiagnosed diabetes during the first phase of the pandemic in eight low-income and middle-income countries: a modelling study’.

For the study, a model to estimate the hospitalisation and mortality burden of patients with COVID-19 that had undiagnosed Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes was put in place.

The study, as per its modelling estimates, found that across the eight countries, 6.7 million COVID-19 hospitalised patients had undiagnosed diabetes, of which 1.9 million died. They represented 21.1% of all COVID-19 hospitalisations and 30.5% of all COVID-19 deaths in these countries.