Use of real-world evidence data to evaluate the comparative effectiveness of second-line type 2 diabetes medications on chronic kidney disease

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a common complication of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Approximately-one-third of patients with T2DM also have CKD. In clinical trial studies, several anti-diabetic medications (ADM) show evidence of preventing the progression of CKD. Biguanides (e.g., metformin) are widely accepted as the first line medication. However, the comparative effectiveness of second line ADMs on CKD outcomes in T2DM is unclear. In addition, results from clinical trials may not generalize into routine clinical practice. In this study, we aimed to investigate the association of second line ADMs with diagnosed incident CKD, CKD hospitalization, and eGFR < 45 mL/min in T2DM patients using real-world data from electronic health records. Our study found that treatment with sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 (SGLT-2) inhibitors was significantly associated with lower risk of diagnosed CKD incidence in both primary analysis (hazard ratio, 0.43; 95 % CI, [0.22;0.87]; p-value,0.02) and secondary analysis (hazard ratio, 0.42; 95 % CI, [0.19;0.92]; p-value, 0.03) compared to use of Sulfonylureas (SU) as a second-line ADM. However, significant associations were not observed when using eGFR < 45 mL/min as the endpoint. Treatment with a dipeptidyl peptidase 4 (DPP-4) inhibitor was significantly associated with lower risk of diagnosed incident CKD (hazard ratio, 0.7; 95 % CI, [0.53;0.96]; p-value, 0.03) and lower risk of CKD hospitalization (hazard ratio, 0.6; 95 % CI, [0.37; 0.96]; p-value, 0.04) in the primary analysis. However, both associations were not significant in the sensitivity analysis. We did not observe significant association between use of glucagon-like peptide 1 receptor agonists (GLP-1RA), Thiazolidinediones (TZD), insulin and diagnosed CKD incidence, hospitalization or eGFR < 45 mL/min compared to use of SU as a second-line ADM.