Biostatistical Investigation of Correlation Between COVID-19 and Diabetes Mellitus

COVID-19 is a highly infectious disease. Studies suggest that its severity is amplified in patients diagnosed with Diabetes Mellitus. In this study, the correlation between the prevalence of COVID-19 and Diabetes was analyzed at the regional and global scale using data extracted from WHO and IDF Diabetes Atlas. For the regional investigation data was assorted into ten regions including Central Asia, Middle east and western Asia, Africa, North America and the Caribbean, South east Asia, East Asia, Europe, South and Central America, South Asia and Oceania. The results show a positive correlation coefficient of 0.47 in Middle east and western Asia. While at the global scale analysis all the selected countries were considered together and a correlation coefficient of 0.32 was observed. This number was increased to 0.69 when the top most affected countries by COVID-19 were considered for the analysis. In order to investigate the time dependent relationship of the two diseases, the data was analysed in five windows of 45 days each since the beginning of pandemic. The results show an increasing pattern of the correlation coefficient in the last three windows. Overall, based on this study by increasing the prevalence of Diabetes Mellitus, the prevalence of COVID-19 cases may also increase.