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The "Real-World" Effect of Anti-hyperglycemic Drugs on the Development of Chronic Kidney Disease in a Retrospective Cohort of Patients With Incident Diabetes: A Research Letter

Dahiya A, Ye M, Vena JE, Shen Tu G, Johnson JA, Eurich DT

Canadian journal of kidney health and disease, 2025

3,001 participants

Abstract

Recent clinical trials suggest benefit of anti-hyperglycemic drugs on kidney outcomes. However, there is a paucity of information available on the real-world impact.We aimed to study the real-world impact of anti-hyperglycemic drugs (metformin, sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 (SGLT-2) inhibitors, dipeptidyl peptidase-4 (DPP-4) inhibitors, and glucagon-like peptide-1receptor (GLP-1R) agonists) using a cohort of patients with incident diabetes derived from the Alberta Tomorrow Project (ATP) database. A retrospective cohort was created from the ATP database using administrative data from October 1, 2000, to March 31, 2021. We examined the effect of anti-hyperglycemic medications including metformin (as a control), SGLT-2 inhibitors, DPP-4 inhibitors, and GLP-1R agonists on a composite kidney outcome including chronic kidney disease, kidney failure, dialysis, kidney transplant, and kidney-related death using a Cox-regression analysis. The study included 3001 patients with an incident diagnosis of diabetes. The average follow-up was 6.7 ± 4.6 years after diagnosis, and 628 (20.9%) patients reached the composite outcome with a mean of 5.6 ± 4.2 years to the first event. A total of 1749 (58.8%) patients were on metformin, 360 (12.0%) on SGLT-2 inhibitors, 313 (10.4%) on DPP-4 inhibitors, and 188 (6.3%) on GLP-1R agonists. Only the patients prescribed SGLT-2 inhibitors had a significant reduction in the composite outcome (hazard ratio (HR) 0.23, 95% CI 0.09-0.62, P-value = .003), and…

How strong is the evidence?

Evidence Hub reads this as a cohort study, done in people. Its evidence level is 3 of 5 (Moderate · trial / cohort / secondary analysis). Trials without a large randomized design, cohorts and secondary analyses give moderate evidence. Reported size: 3,001 participants or records.

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