Tallon, E. M, Ebekozien, O, Sanchez, J, Staggs, V, Ferro, D, Shyu C-R, Clements, M

Introduction: Considerable research has addressed the impact and increased severity of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in adult patients with type 2 diabetes (T2D). However, findings from older adult patients cannot be generalized to affected children and young adults.

Objectives: In this retrospective cohort study, we examine whether race/ethnicity and other factors are associated with hospitalization in pediatric and young adult patients with T2D and COVID-19 infection.

Methods: The de-identified COVID-19 patient cohort from the December 2020 release of Cerner Real-World DataTM includes longitudinal data for patients who received care at 87 US-based health systems between December 2019 and September 2020. A rigorous, multi-step algorithm was used to identify patients with T2D (n=229). Analysis was limited to patients <27 years old with a positive laboratory test or billing code consistent with COVID-19 infection. A generalized linear mixed model was used to evaluate race/ethnicity, gender, HbA1c, body mass index (BMI), mean blood glucose, age, payer, and Elixhauser comorbidity score as correlates of hospital admission.

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