Salam Zein,Akram Echtay,Amal Al-Hajje,Batoul Diab,Dalia Khachman,Rita Farah,Samar Rachidi,Sanaa Awada,
Type 2 Diabetes and Comorbidity Among Internal Medicine Lebanese Patients: A Case Control Study
Journal of Diabetes Metabolism and its Complications
2019
2674-4163
http://dx.doi.org/10.31487/j.JDMC.2019.01.05
https://www.sciencerepository.org/type-2-diabetes-and-comorbidity-among-internal-medicine-lebanese-patients-a-case-control-study_JDMC-2019-1-105 
Abstract: 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.Keywords:  Comorbidity, Diabetes, CCI, CIRS, Mortality, Length of stay