All-cause mortality and cardiovascular outcomes with sodium-glucose Co-transporter 2 inhibitors, glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists and with combination therapy in people with type 2 diabetes

Abstract

Aim: To assess the relationship of sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 inhibitors (SGLT2i), glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor analogues (GLP-1RA) and their combination (SGLT2i + GLP-1RA) with 5-year risk of all-cause mortality, hospitalization and cardiovascular/macrovascular disease in people with type 2 diabetes.

Materials and methods: Retrospective cohort analysis of 2.2 million people with type 2 diabetes receiving insulin across 85 health care organizations using a global federated health research network. Three intervention cohorts (SGLT2i, GLP-1RA and SGLT2i + GLP-1RA) were compared against a control cohort (no SGLT2i/GLP-1RA). Propensity score matching for age, ischaemic heart disease, sex, hypertension, chronic kidney disease, heart failure and glycated haemoglobin was used to balance cohorts 1:1 (SGLT2i, n = 143 600; GLP-1RA, n = 186 841; SGLT-2i + GLP-1RA, n = 108 504). A sub-analysis comparing combination and monotherapy cohorts was also performed.

Results: The intervention cohorts showed a reduced hazard ratio (HR, 95% confidence interval) over 5 years compared with the control cohort for all-cause mortality (SGLT2i 0.49, 0.48-0.50; GLP-1RA 0.47, 0.46-0.48; combination 0.25, 0.24-0.26), hospitalization (0.73, 0.72-0.74; 0.69, 0.68-0.69; 0.60, 0.59-0.61) and acute myocardial infarct (0.75, 0.72-0.78; 0.70, 0.68-0.73; 0.63, 0.60-0.66), respectively. All other outcomes showed a significant risk reduction in favour of the intervention cohorts. The sub-analysis showed a significant risk reduction in all-cause mortality for combination therapy versus SGLT2i (0.53, 0.50-0.55) and GLP-1RA (0.56, 0.54-0.59).

Conclusions: SGLT2i, GLP-1RAs or combination therapy confers mortality and cardiovascular protection in people with type 2 diabetes over 5 years. Combination therapy was associated with the greatest risk reduction in all-cause mortality versus a propensity matched control cohort. In addition, combination therapy offers a reduction in 5-year all-cause mortality when compared directly against either monotherapy.

Keywords: cardiovascular disease; chronic kidney disease; glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists; hospitalization; mortality; sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 inhibitors; type 2 diabetes.