Routine care for people with newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes before and during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic - results from the German Disease Analyzer database

Abstract

Aim: To investigate whether the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic affected care for people with newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes in Germany.

Methods: The Disease Analyzer database (IQVIA, Germany) contains routine data on diagnoses and treatments (ICD-10 and ATC codes) from patients followed in selected physician practices across Germany. We compared 21,747 individuals with a first diagnosis of type 2 diabetes between January 2018 and September 2019 with 20,513 individuals with a first diabetes diagnosis between March 2020 and November 2021.

Results: In March and April 2020, the number of new diagnoses of diabetes decreased by 18.3% and 35.7%, respectively, compared to March and April of the previous two years. The previous diabetes incidence level was reached again in June 2020. Mean pre-treatment glucose levels were higher during the pandemic than before (fasting plasma glucose: +6.3 mg/dl (95% confidence interval: 4.6-8.0)). In the first six months after diabetes diagnosis, the mean number of GP visits, specialist referrals and HbA1c measurements decreased.

Conclusion: We observed a decrease in diabetes incidence in the early phase of the pandemic and slightly higher pretreatment blood glucose levels during the pandemic than before. Care for newly diagnosed diabetes was slightly worse during the pandemic than before.

Keywords: COVID-19; Diabetes mellitus; Primary care; SARS-CoV-2.