PMID- 35550472 OWN - NLM STAT- MEDLINE DCOM- 20220519 LR - 20230103 IS - 1536-5964 (Electronic) IS - 0025-7974 (Print) IS - 0025-7974 (Linking) VI - 101 IP - 18 DP - 2022 May 6 TI - The severity and clinical characteristics of COVID-19 among patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus in Jazan, Saudi Arabia. PG - e29215 LID - 10.1097/MD.0000000000029215 [doi] LID - e29215 AB - BACKGROUND: The objectives of the current study were to assess the severity and clinical characteristics of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) among Saudi adults with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) in Jazan region, Saudi Arabia. METHODS: This retrospective cohort study included 412 patients with COVID-19 selected randomly from the Health Electronic Surveillance Network system, which contains the primary data on COVID-19 infections in Jazan. RESULTS: COVID-19 disease duration was significantly longer in patients with T2DM (mean = 10.7 days) compared with those without T2DM (mean = 8.3 days) (P = .01). Six (7%) patients experienced an increase in blood glucose concentrations and had to escalate their total daily insulin dose accordingly. Median fasting and random blood glucose levels increased after infection with COVID-19 (pre-COVID median = 119 and 172 mg/dL, respectively; post-COVID median = 148 and 216 mg/dL, respectively) (P = .02). The total insulin dose pre-COVID (median = 42 units/d) increased after infection with COVID-19 (median = 58 units/d) (P = .01). Most patients with T2DM had clinical COVID-19 symptoms (91%) and the remainder (9%) were asymptomatic. A large proportion (80%) of T2DM patients with mild COVID-19 symptoms self-isolated at home. COVID-19 patients with T2DM (11%) who had an oxygen saturation of