The effect of metformin on mortality and severity in COVID-19 patients with diabetes mellitus

• Published in: Diabetes research and clinical practice Vol. 178; p. 108977
• Main Authors: Yang, Wenxing, Sun, Xuehong, Zhang, Jun, Zhang, Kui
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Ireland Elsevier B.V 01.08.2021
• Subjects: COVID-19; COVID-19 - mortality; Diabetes; Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 - complications; Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 - drug therapy; Humans; Hypoglycemic Agents - therapeutic use; Meta-analysis; Metformin; Metformin - therapeutic use; Review; COVID-19; Metformin; Diabetes; Meta-analysis
• ISSN: 0168-8227; 1872-8227
• DOI: 10.1016/j.diabres.2021.108977

COVID-19 has spread globally with heavy impact on most countries and our therapeutic strategies in COVID-19 patients with diabetes are still limited. Recently, some new information was added to this field. We performed this updated meta-analysis to reveal the underlying effect of metformin on COVID-19 patients with diabetes. We searched the PubMed, Embase and CNKI (China National Knowledge Infrastructure) databases for all articles. The odds ratio (OR) corresponding to the 95% confidence interval (95% CI) was used to assess the effect of metformin on COVID-19 patients with diabetes. The statistical heterogeneity among studies was assessed with the Q-test and I2 statistics. We collected 17 studies including 20,719 COVID-19 patients with diabetes. Our results found that metformin was associated with significantly decreased mortality and severity in COVID-19 patients with diabetes (OR = 0.64, 95% CI = 0.51–0.79 for mortality, and OR = 0.81, 95% CI = 0.66–0.99 for severity). Our meta-analysis indicated that following metformin treatment might benefit the patients with T2DM, both the mortality and severity. However, patients with severe COVID-19 should be monitored closely for the development of lactic acidosis, acidosis, and decreased kidney function.