The Association Between Second-Line Oral Antihyperglycemic Medication on Types of Dementia in Type 2 Diabetes: A Nationwide Real-World Longitudinal Study

Background: There are few reports that evaluated the association between various types of dementia and dual oral therapy with antihyperglycemic medication. Objective: The goal of this study was to investigate the association between treatment of dual antihyperglycemic medication and dementia subclass in type 2 diabetes mellitus using the Korean National Health Insurance System. Methods: This study included 701,193 individuals with diabetes prescribed dual oral therapy between 2009 and 2012 from the Korean National Health Insurance Service Database, which were tracked until 2017. All-cause, Alzheimer's (AD) and vascular dementia (VaD) were investigated by dual oral therapy. Adjustments were made for age, sex, income, diabetes duration, hypertension, dyslipidemia, smoking, drinking, exercise, body mass index, glucose level, and estimated glomerular filtration rate. Results: Dual therapy with metformin (Met) + dipeptidyl peptidase-4 inhibitor (DPP-4i), Met + thiazolidinedione (TZD), and sulfonylurea (SU) + thiazolidinediones (TZD) were significantly associated with all-cause dementia (HR = 0.904, 0.804, and 0.962, respectively) and VaD (HR = 0.865, 0.725, and 0.911, respectively), compared with Met + SU. Met + DPP-4i and Met + TZD were associated with significantly lower risk of AD (HR = 0.922 and 0.812), compared with Met + SU. Dual therapy with TZD was associated with a significantly lower risk of all-cause dementia, AD, and VaD than nonusers of TZD (HR = 0.918, 0.925 and 0.859, respectively). Conclusion: Adding TZD or DPP-4i instead of SU as second-line anti-diabetic treatment may be considered for delaying or preventing dementia. Also, TZD users relative to TZD non-users on dual oral therapy were significantly associated with lower risk of various types of dementia.

Automated summary

This study found that dual therapy with metformin + thiazolidinedione and metformin + dipeptidyl peptidase-4 inhibitor was significantly associated with lower risk of various types of dementia. Additionally, the use of thiazolidinediones in dual oral therapy was significantly associated with a lower risk of dementia compared to non-users.