COVID-19: Study finds undiagnosed diabetes a major reason for hospitalisations and deaths in India

A latest study revealed the major reason for COVID-19 hospitalisations and deaths in countries like India. The study, published in journal The Lancet , stated that unidentified diabetes led to a significant rise of COVID-19 severe infections and even mortality rate in various low- and middle-income countries (LMIC), including India.

The researchers analysed the COVID-19 effect in eight countries, namely India, Brazil, China, Indonesia, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, and South Africa. The study was supported, in part, by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and FIND, a global health non-profit based in Geneva.

Aim of the study

The Indian Covid burden was recognised as a result of other chronic health ailments, including diabetes. This burden of chronic illness that were majorly affected due to SARS-CoV-2 has been studied earlier as well but this latest study looks into the incidence of undiagnosed co-morbidities during the pandemic.

The study, titled ‘Estimates of hospitalisations and deaths in patients with COVID-19 associated with undiagnosed diabetes during the first phase of the pandemic in eight low-income and middle-income countries: a modelling study’, aimed to study the undiagnosed burden of other health conditions and the impact of COVID-19.

For the study, a model to estimate the hospitalisation and mortality burden of patients with COVID-19 that had undiagnosed Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes was put in place.