Antidiabetic treatment and COVID-19 Outcomes: A population-based cohort study in primary health care in Catalonia during the first wave of the pandemic

Abstract

Aims: To analyse if antidiabetic treatment was associated with better COVID-19 outcomes in type 2 diabetic patients, measured by hospital admission and mortality rates as severe outcomes.

Methods: Cohort study including COVID-19 patients registered in the Primary Care electronic records, in March-June 2020, comparing exposed to metformin in monotherapy with exposed to any other antidiabetic.

Data source: SIDIAP (Information System for Research in Primary Care), which captures clinical information of 5,8 million people from Catalonia, Spain.

Results: We included 31,006 diabetic patients infected with COVID-19, 43.7% previously exposed to metformin, 45.5% of them in monotherapy. 16.4% were admitted to hospital and 15.1% died. Users of insulin in monotherapy (OR 1.29, 95% CI 1.11-1.50), combined with metformin (OR 1.38, 1.13-1.69) or IDPP4 alone (OR 1.29, 1.03-1.63) had higher risk of severe outcomes than those in metformin monotherapy. Users of any insulin (OR 1.61, 1.32-1.97) or combined with metformin (OR 1.69, 1.30-2.20) had a higher risk of mortality.

Conclusions: Patients receiving metformin monotherapy in our study showed a lower risk of hospitalization and death in comparison to those treated with other frequent antidiabetic agents. We cannot distinguish if better outcomes are related with the antidiabetic therapy or with other factors, such as metabolic control or interventions applied during the hospital admission.

Keywords: Antidiabetic agents; COVID-19; Diabetes; Electronic health records; Primary health care.