Aim: During the COVID-19 pandemic, access to health care was affected by the lockdown period. To overcome this situation, telemedicine is an alternative to conventional follow-up for patients with diabetes during the fasting month of Ramadan. The aim of this study is to compare the effectiveness of telemedicine consultation of diabetic patients during Ramadan compared with conventional follow-up.
Methods: This comparative cross-sectional study conducted in the Sheikh Khalifa Ibn Zaid Hospital of Casablanca, Morocco, included diabetic patients followed up by conventional consultation in 2019 Ramadan and by telemedicine in 2020 Ramadan. For each patient and in both Ramadans (2019 and 2020), we have conducted a pre-Ramadan assessment, screening for acute diabetic complications during Ramadan and an evaluation of weight and glycated hemoglobin of patients, after Ramadan. We compared the occurrence of acute complications and the variation of metabolic parameters of patients in Ramadan 2020 with their results in Ramadan 2019.
Results: In this study, we included 61 patients. In Ramadan 2020, compared with Ramadan 2019, there was no significant difference in terms of hypoglycemia (18.03% versus 32.78%, p = 0.09), minor hyperglycemia (13.1% versus 11.47%, p = 0.35) and major hyperglycemia or ketoacidosis (3.27% versus 6.55%, p = 0.19). Fasting was interrupted in 8.19% versus 11.47% (p = 0.012). There were no significant variations of weight (+0.62 versus − 0.77; p = 0.09). In term of variation of glycated hemoglobin, there was a significant different between Ramadan 2020 and Ramadan 2019 (− 0.36 versus − 0.61 in 2019, p< 0.05).
Conclusion: Despite comparable results in terms of weight change and hypoglycemia, our study showed that telemedicine follow-up in patients with diabetes during Ramadan did not provide as effective glycemic control as conventional monitoring.

Keywords: Ramadan, diabetes, COVID-19, telemedicine


中文翻译：

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斋月禁食月份的糖尿病：远程医疗与常规随访一样有效吗？摩洛哥比较研究的结果

目的：在 COVID-19 大流行期间，获得医疗保健的机会受到封锁期的影响。为了克服这种情况，远程医疗是在斋月禁食月份对糖尿病患者进行常规随访的替代方法。本研究的目的是比较斋月期间糖尿病患者远程医疗咨询与常规随访的有效性。
方法：这项在摩洛哥卡萨布兰卡的 Sheikh Khalifa Ibn Zaid 医院进行的比较性横断面研究包括糖尿病患者，在 2019 年斋月接受常规会诊，在 2020 年斋月接受远程医疗。对于每位患者以及两个斋月（2019 年和 2020 年），我们都进行了斋月前评估，在斋月期间筛查急性糖尿病并发症，并在斋月后评估患者的体重和糖化血红蛋白。我们将 2020 年斋月期间急性并发症的发生率和患者代谢参数的变化与 2019 年斋月期间的结果进行了比较。
结果：在这项研究中，我们纳入了 61 名患者。在 2020 年斋月，与 2019 年斋月相比，低血糖（18.03% 对 32.78%，p = 0.09）、轻微高血糖（13.1% 对 11.47%，p = 0.35）和严重高血糖或酮症酸中毒（3.27）没有显着差异% 对 6.55%，p = 0.19）。禁食中断的比例分别为 8.19% 和 11.47%（p = 0.012）。体重没有显着变化（+0.62 对 - 0.77；p = 0.09）。就糖化血红蛋白的变化而言，2020 年斋月和 2019 年斋月之间存在显着差异（2019 年 - 0.36 对 - 0.61，p < 0.05）。
结论：尽管在体重变化和低血糖方面的结果相当，但我们的研究表明，在斋月期间对糖尿病患者进行远程医疗随访并没有提供像传统监测那样有效的血糖控制。

关键词：斋月，糖尿病，COVID-19，远程医疗