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. 2020 Aug:166:108301.
doi: 10.1016/j.diabres.2020.108301. Epub 2020 Jul 3.

COVID-19 impact on people with diabetes in South and Central America (SACA region)

Mark Thomaz Ugliara Barone  1 , Douglas Villarroel  2 , Patrícia Vieira de Luca  3 , Simone Bega Harnik  4 , Bruna Letícia de Souza Lima  5 , Ronaldo José Pineda Wieselberg  6 , Viviana Giampaoli  4
Affiliations

COVID-19 impact on people with diabetes in South and Central America (SACA region)

Mark Thomaz Ugliara Barone et al. Diabetes Res Clin Pract. 2020 Aug.

Abstract

Aims: The present observational study aims to describe political actions in place to combat COVID-19 in the South and Central America region (SACA) while protecting individuals with diabetes.

Methods: A survey with 12 questions was shared with all IDF-SACA member organizations, in 18 countries. A descriptive analysis was performed and a multivariate cluster analysis technique pam (partitioning around medoids) was applied.

Results: Two groups of countries were identified. The first group, mostly countries with stricter measures to contain the spread of the virus, reported more difficulties (limitations in accessing basic or health needs) and fears (concerns regarding the impact of the pandemic); whereas most of the second group consisted of countries with less restrictive measures, and reported fewer difficulties. Only 37% responded that a policy was put into place to protect individuals with diabetes, either delivering their medicines and supplies at home (16%) or providing them at once enough for 2-3 months (21%). All respondents reported that one of the main fear was to "be infected and not to receive adequate treatment" and/or "getting infected if going to the hospital or medical appointments".

Conclusion: Most of the SACA countries failed to implement timely measures to protect individuals with diabetes, which may severely impact individuals, health systems and economies.

Keywords: COVID-19; Central America; Diabetes; Pandemic; SARS-CoV-2; South America.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Frequencies of challenges selected by respondents.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Frequencies of fears selected by respondents.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Comment in

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