Effects of Metformin on COVID-19 Patients with Type 2 Diabetes: A Retrospective Study

Ziyu Guo; Yanxiang Gao; Enmin Xie; Zixiang Ye; Yike Li; Xuecheng Zhao; Nan Shen; Jingang Zheng

doi:10.2147/DMSO.S417925

Effects of Metformin on COVID-19 Patients with Type 2 Diabetes: A Retrospective Study

Diabetes Metab Syndr Obes. 2023 Aug 24:16:2573-2582. doi: 10.2147/DMSO.S417925. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Ziyu Guo¹, Yanxiang Gao², Enmin Xie³, Zixiang Ye¹, Yike Li³, Xuecheng Zhao², Nan Shen¹, Jingang Zheng^{1

2

3}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Cardiology, Peking University China-Japan Friendship School of Clinical Medicine, Beijing, People's Republic of China.
² Department of Cardiology, China-Japan Friendship Hospital, Beijing, People's Republic of China.
³ Graduate School of Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, People's Republic of China.

Abstract

Purpose: The pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has highlighted the intricate relationship between underlying conditions and death. We designed this study to determine whether metformin therapy for type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2D) is associated with low in-hospital mortality in patients hospitalized for COVID-19.

Materials and methods: This was a retrospective study including patients with COVID-19 and T2D in Wuhan, from February 4th to April 11th, 2020. Patients were divided into two groups according to metformin exposure. The hazard ratio (HR) of COVID-19-related mortality and invasive mechanical ventilation was estimated using Cox regression.

Results: There were 571 T2D patients among the 4330 confirmed COVID-19 patients. Of those patients, 241 received metformin therapy. The in-hospital mortality and invasive mechanical ventilation of metformin group was lower than non-metformin group. In the multivariate model, metformin use was linked to a decreased in-hospital mortality and invasive mechanical ventilation when compared with that of the control group (HR: 0.376 [95% CI 0.154-0.922]; P = 0.033).

Conclusion: Our study indicated that metformin therapy was associated with decreased death risk in COVID-19 patients with T2D.

Keywords: COVID-19; diabetes mellitus; metformin; mortality.

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the Beijing Research Ward Construction Clinical Research Project (2022-YJXBF-04-03) and the National Key Clinical Specialty Construction Project (2020-QTL-009).