investigation of risk factors for hospitalization of covid-19 patients with diabetes in najaf, iraq

Preliminary findings indicate that patients with diabetes mellitus (dm) are at additional risk of infecting with covid-19 caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (sars-cov-2), which is associated with increased mortality in these patients. hyperglycemia can affect inflammatory and immune responses, which leads patients to severe covid-19 consequences. the present study investigated risk factors for hospitalized covid-19 patients with dm in najaf, iraq. 127 patients with positive pcr tests were selected from al-hakeem hospital and al-sadr teaching hospital. demographic characteristics and laboratory data were collected to compare patients with and without dm. chi-squared test followed by odds ratio calculations were used to investigate the risk factors associated with hospitalization of covid-19 patients with or without dm in the icu and rcu. analysis of the relationship between risk factors indicated that age above 65 years, high bmi, hypertension, respiratory rate> 24 bpm, cvd, blood sugar> 180 mg/dl, d-dimer> 1000, alt> 50 and ast> 40 u/l were independent risk factors for hospitalized covid-19 patients with dm (p≤0.05). therefore, investigating these factors may detect the risk of infection with covid-19 in patients with dm in advance. physicians should further consider risk factors to discover a targeted intervention to improve clinical efficacy.