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Ministry of Health , Baghdad , Iraq
Department of Pharmacology , Al-Kindy College of Medicine, University of Baghdad , Baghdad , Iraq
COVID-19 infection may exacerbate glycemia and lead to metabolic problems in people with diabetes. Emerging data suggest that diabetes may also develop during coronavirus infection in individuals with no prior history of the disease. This study aimed to analyze the prevalence of new-onset hyperglycemia and diabetes mellitus (nDM) in COVID-19 patients. A retrospective study was conducted at AL-Kindy Teaching Hospital in Baghdad, Iraq, from August 2021 to January 2022, including a convenience sample of 150 non-diabetic COVID-19 patients. Data were extracted from medical records and included demographic information, disease severity, laboratory findings, presence of comorbidities, and disease outcomes. nDM was defined as a glucose level > 200 mg/dL on two occasions with no previous history of diabetes mellitus (DM). The mean age of participants was 54.81 ± 14.8 years, with a male-to-female ratio of 1.3:1. During hospitalization, 40 (26.7%) patients developed nDM; among them, 17.5% had moderate, 62.5% severe, and 20.0% critical COVID-19 infection (P = 0.370). nDM was associated with non-smoking status (35%, P = 0.026), hypertension (62.5%, P = 0.045), elevated D-dimer levels (3.261 ± 3.197 g/L, P = 0.036), and reduced lymphocyte counts (0.92 × 10⁹ cells/L ± 0.98, P = 0.010). Non-smoking status and higher D-dimer levels were significant predictors of nDM, with odds ratios (95% CI) of 0.418 (0.175–0.997) and 1.2 (1.04–1.38), respectively, but nDM was not associated with worse outcomes. In conclusion, new-onset diabetes was observed in approximately one-fourth of hospitalized COVID-19 patients, but it did not predict adverse clinical outcomes.
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