Abstract
During the COVID-19 pandemic, there were increased concerns about glycemic
control in patients with diabetes. Therefore, we aimed to assess changes in
diabetes management during the COVID-19 lockdown for patients with type 1 or
type 2 diabetes mellitus (T1DM, T2DM) in Germany. We included data from 24,623
patients (age>18 years) with T1DM (N=6,975) or T2DM
(N=17,648) with documented data in 2019 and 2020 from the multicenter
Diabetes-Prospective Follow-up registry (DPV). We conducted a groupwise
comparison of identical patients in 2019 and 2020 for different time periods of
pandemia. Pairwise differences of continuous parameters of treatment modalities
and metabolic outcome between 2019 and 2020 were adjusted for seasonality, age,
and diabetes duration. We presented these outcomes as adjusted medians with
95% confidence intervals. Rates were compared using negative-binomial
models, dichotomous outcomes were compared using logistic models. Models were
additionally adjusted for age and diabetes duration. These outcomes were
presented as least-square means with 95% confidence intervals, p-values
of<.05 were considered significant.
In participants with T1DM, CGI (combined glucose indicator) increased only by
0.11–0.12% in all time periods of 2020 compared to 2019 (all
p<0.001) while BMI decreased slightly by −(0.09–0.10)
kg/m² (p<0.0001). In participants with T2DM, HbA1c
increased by 0.12%, while BMI decreased slightly by
−(0.05–0.06) kg/m² (p<0.0001).
During the COVID-19 lockdown period, patients with T1DM and T2DM experienced only
clinically insignificant changes in glucose control or body weight. Despite
lockdown restrictions, patients were able to maintain metabolic control.
Key words
Pandemia - diabetes self-management - HbA1c - obesity - remote diabetes care
