Poor glycemic control: a public health challenge prepandemic and pandemic.

Abstract

Objective. To compare glycemic control in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus who attended primary healthcare units in Mexico City, prepandemic and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Materials and methods. Records of 23 912 diabetes patients were analyzed; 78.7% were from the prepandemic group (2016 to 2020) and 21.3% from the pandemic group (March 2020 to July 2021). Central tendency and dispersion measures were calculated, Student’s t-test and multiple logistic regression model were performed. Results. Patients with diabetes were mainly women (66.6 and 62.6%) with an average age of 59 and 58 years, respectively. Glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1) levels were 7.7 in the prepandemic group and (8.0) in the pandemic group. The variables associated with poor glycemic control included period, HbA1 level, overweight, obesity, history of parents with diabetes, number of medications and type of insulin. Conclusions. Most patients with diabetes continued to have poor glycemic control in both groups. Patients in the pandemic group had poor glycemic control compared to the prepandemic group.After medical intervention, patients improved their glycemic control in both groups