The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic period on glycemic regulation and other metabolic parameters in patients with diabetes

Introduction: COVID-19 pandemic brought a massive change into the order of life through the whole world. Turkish Ministry of Health took critical measures towards preventing COVID-19 pandemic expanding. In accordance to these measures, there are few studies that analyse the effect of pandemic on glycemic regulation and metabolic parameters of diabetic patients. This study aims to evaluate the glycemic regulation and metabolic parameters of patients that admitted to selected hospital during COVID-19 pandemic, while comparing the data to pre-pandemic period. Material-Method: The data that include glycemic regulations and selected parameters of patients who admitted to Aydın Adnan Menderes University Endocrinology Department of Medical Faculty between June-December of 2020 had been collected and the change in values relevant to patients' first admittance during pandemic to their 3-month period pre-COVID measures has been evaluated. Patients were asked to fill out the questionnaire form. The data has been statistically analysed in SPSS in the significance level of 0.05. Findings: Total of 504 diabetic patients had been included in the study (89.2% having Type-2 diabetes, while 8.73% have Type-1). The average time passed between last check-up before pandemic and the first one after was 7 months (5-9). According to the data acquired from first admittance during pandemic; there was a significant increase in values relevant to HbA1c, fasting plasma glucose and post prandial 2-hours plasma glucose (p<0.001 in all groups). Median value of HbA1c was increased from 7% (6.3-8.2) to 7.45% (p<0.001). Glycemically controlled patient ratio was decreased from 47.8% to 36.1% (p<0.001). The data showed that 62.9% of patients gained weight with the median value being 2 kilograms (p<0.001). The patient ratio of patients with BMI 30≥kg/m2 was increased from 44.6% to 50.8% during the pandemic (p<0.001). Result: The study showed that, during the pandemic period, diabetic patients are having more intervals between check-ups, there is an increase in food consumption, there is a decrease in patients who are actively working and due to that, there is a weight gain and deterioration in glycemic regulation. Key words: Diabetes, COVID-19, Obesity, Glycemic regulation, Weight gain