Quantifying Worsened Glycemic Control during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Aims: We hypothesized that glycemic control in outpatients, measured by HbA1c, was worse during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic than in 2019. We sought to quantify how much worse and to determine if social determinants of health were associated with these differences. Materials and Methods: Data were extracted from the electronic medical records of 2 cohorts of patients seen in the family medicine clinic of a southeastern academic health center. Three hundred patients with baseline HbA1c results as well as HbA1c results in May 2019 or May 2020 were evaluated. Results: The groups had similar mean baseline HbA1c (7.65, SD = 1.50 for 2019; 7.61, SD = 1.71 for 2020; P = .85). Mean May HbA1c decreased from baseline in 2019 (7.19, SD = 1.45) but rose in 2020 (7.63, SD = 1.73), a statistically significant difference (P<.01). Controlling for age, gender, race, and insurance status, HbA1c in May 2020 (meanadj = 7.73) was significantly higher than in May 2019 (meanadj = 7.16). Conclusions: During the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, glycemic control in our patient population was significantly worse than during the same period in 2019 (mean HbA1c difference= 0.57). Contrary to our expectations, we did not find associations between patient demographic variables and glycemic control, including race. ( J Am Board Fam Med 2021;34:S192-S195.). copyright. J Am Board Fam Med: First published as 10.3122/jabfm.2021.S1.200446 on 23 February 2021.