Type 2 Diabetes and Comorbidity Among Internal Medicine Lebanese Patients: A Case Control Study

Introduction: Comorbidity has been shown to increase length of stay (LOS), and mortality in diabetic patients. However, in Lebanon there is no data that studies the impact of comorbidity on mortality. Our aim was to assess whether comorbid conditions affect LOS and mortality in the sample under study. Study Design and Setting: A case-control retrospective pilot study was undertaken using data of patients admitted to Rafik Hariri University Hospital for six months. Comorbidity information was collected using Charlson Comorbidity Index (CCI), and Cumulative Illness Rating Scale (CIRS). Bivariate and multivariate analyses were conducted. Results: We studied 361 patients (33.2% were diabetic). In comparison to non-diabetic patients, diabetic patients had more comorbidity (5.28 vs 4.04; p <0.001), which was assessed by CIRS (p <0.001) and CCI (p <0.001). Non-diabetic patients have three times more risk of mortality than diabetic subjects, but the mean LOS for patients with diabetes was one day longer than patients without diabetes. Conclusion: These results showed that comorbidity increased both mortality and LOS, and it suggested that controlling diabetes and comorbidities may reduce mortality and LOS. However, they need to be confirmed by further investigations in a larger sample.