BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES

To compare cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk associated with 5 different dipeptidyl peptidase-4 inhibitors (DPP-4is) in people with type 2 diabetes.

METHODS

We identified 534,327 people who were newly prescribed sitagliptin (n=167,157), vildagliptin (n=67,412), saxagliptin (n=29,479), linagliptin (n=220,672), or gemigliptin (n=49,607) between January 2013 and June 2015 using the claims database of the Korean National Health Insurance System. A Cox proportional hazards model was used to estimate hazard ratios (HRs) for major CVD events (myocardial infarction, stroke, or death) among users of different DPP-4is. The model was adjusted for sex, age, duration of DPP-4i use, use of other glucose-lowering drugs, use of antiplatelet agents, hypertension, dyslipidemia, atrial fibrillation, chronic kidney disease, microvascular complications of diabetes, Charlson comorbidity index, and the calendar index year as potential confounders.

RESULTS

Compared to sitagliptin users, the fully adjusted HRs for CVD events were 0.97 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.94-1.01; p=0.163) for vildagliptin, 0.76 (95% CI, 0.71-0.81; p<0.001) for saxagliptin, 0.95 (95% CI, 0.92-0.98; p<0.001) for linagliptin, and 0.84 (95% CI, 0.80-0.88; p<0.001) for gemigliptin.

CONCLUSIONS

Compared to sitagliptin therapy, saxagliptin, linagliptin, and gemigliptin therapies were all associated with a lower risk of cardiovascular events.