Evaluation of clinical and antidiabetic treatment characteristics of different sub-groups of patients with type 2 diabetes: Data from a Mediterranean population database

Aims: To describe the characteristics and antidiabetic treatment among type 2 diabetes patients according to the clinical conditions prioritized in the Spanish 2020 RedGDPS (Primary Care Diabetes Study Groups Network) therapeutic algorithm: obesity, older than 75 years, chronic kidney disease, cardiovascular disease, and heart failure. Methods: Retrospective, cross-sectional study. Clinical characteristics, the use of antidiabetic drugs and the KDIGO renal risk categories at 31.12.2016 were retrieved from the SIDIAP (Information System for Research in Primary Care) database (Catalonia, Spain). Results: From a total of 373,185 type 2 diabetes patients, 37% were older than 75 years, 45% obese, 33% had chronic kidney disease, 23.2% cardiovascular disease and 6.9% heart failure. Insulin was more frequently prescribed in chronic kidney disease, cardiovascular disease and heart failure whereas Sodium-Glucose cotransporter 2 inhibitors and Glucagon Like Peptide 1 receptor agonists were scarcely prescribed (2.6% and 1.4%, respectively). Among patients with severe renal failure, contraindicated drugs like metformin (16%) and sulfonylureas (6.1%) were still in use. The 2012 KDIGO renal risk categories distribution was: Low: 60.9%, Moderate: 21.6%, High: 9.8% and Very high: 7.7%. Conclusions: Almost 80% of our T2DM patients meet one of the five clinical conditions that should be considered for treatment individualization. Importantly, a relevant number of patients with severe renal failure were found to use contraindicated drugs. (c) 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of Primary Care Diabetes Europe. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Automated summary

The study described the impact of five clinical conditions prioritized in the RedGDPS therapeutic algorithm on the characteristics and treatment of type 2 diabetes patients. Obesity, older age, chronic kidney disease, cardiovascular disease, and heart failure were common conditions among patients. The study found that some patients were still using contraindicated drugs in the case of severe renal failure.