Patients with diabetes should be advised to continue taking metformin drugs despite COVID-19 infection status

Objectives:
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has caused a significant impact on all aspects of life. One of the comorbidities associated with severe outcome and mortality of COVID-19 is diabetes. Metformin is one of the drugs which is most commonly used for the treatment of diabetes patients. Therefore, this review article has been conducted.

Does metformin use reduce mortality risk from COVID-19 infections among diabetes patients?

Study design:
This review article included 5 studies with a total of 6, 937 COVID-19 patients.

Results and conclusions:   
The investigators found meta-analysis showed that metformin use significantly reduced mortality risk from COVID-19 infections among diabetes patients with 46% [RR = 0.54, 95% CI = 0.32 to 0.90, p = 0.02, I2 = 54%, random-effect modelling].

The investigators concluded metformin has shown benefits in reducing the mortality rate from COVID-19 infections. Patients with diabetes should be advised to continue taking metformin drugs despite COVID-19 infection status.

Original title:
Metformin use is associated with reduced mortality rate from coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infection by Hariyanto TI and Kurniawan A.

Link:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32844132/

Additional information of El Mondo:
Find more information/studies on diabetes mellitus and coronavirus right here.