Table 2.
Risk of hypoglycaemia in participants with diabetic using non-insulin antidiabetic agents (NIAAs), sulphonylurea only users stratified by most recent prescribed daily dose
| Drug use | Risk of hypoglycaemia | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No of events | Person years | Incident rate | Adjusted hazard ratio (95% CI)* | Fully adjusted hazard ratio (95% CI)† | |
| Metformin only use | |||||
| Current | 836 | 205 351 | 4.1 | Reference | Reference |
| Recent | 20 | 21 584 | 0.9 | 0.37 (0.24 to 0.57) | 0.36 (0.23 to 0.55) |
| Past | 47 | 673 009 | 0.1 | 0.18 (0.14 to 0.24) | 0.18 (0.14 to 0.25) |
| Sulphonylurea only use | |||||
| Current‡: | 457 | 33 829 | 13.5 | 3.30 (2.94 to 3.69) | 2.50 (2.23 to 2.82) |
| Low dose | 146 | 15 236 | 9.6 | 2.68 (2.35 to 3.06) | 2.03 (1.77 to 2.32) |
| Medium dose | 109 | 8988 | 12.1 | 2.81 (2.43 to 3.24) | 2.16 (1.86 to 2.50) |
| High dose | 102 | 4386 | 23.3 | 4.18 (3.61 to 4.84) | 3.12 (2.68 to 3.62) |
| Unknown§ | 100 | 3808 | 26.3 | 5.88 (5.02 to 6.87) | 4.60 (3.92 to 5.40) |
| Recent | 17 | 3734 | 4.6 | 1.53 (0.95 to 2.48) | 1.09 (0.67 to 1.76) |
| Past | 43 | 78 383 | 0.6 | 0.74 (0.55 to 1.01) | 0.56 (0.41 to 0.76) |
| Metformin and sulphonylurea use | |||||
| Current | 1043 | 74 847 | 13.9 | 3.24 (2.95 to 3.56) | 3.06 (2.79 to 3.37) |
| Recent | 16 | 6187 | 2.6 | 1.15 (0.68 to 1.97) | 1.05 (0.62 to 1.78) |
| Past | 58 | 447 723 | 0.1 | 0.44 (0.34 to 0.58) | 0.40 (0.30 to 0.52) |
| Metformin and other NIAA use | |||||
| Current | 124 | 19 652 | 6.3 | 1.26 (1.00 to 1.59) | 1.28 (1.02 to 1.61) |
| Recent | <6 | 594 | 6.7 | 0.80 (0.23 to 2.84) | 0.83 (0.23 to 2.92) |
| Past | <6 | 3850 | 0.1 | 0.17 (0.06 to 0.45) | 0.17 (0.06 to 0.47) |
| Sulphonylurea and other NIAA use | |||||
| Current | 82 | 4830 | 17.0 | 3.69 (2.83 to 4.80) | 3.12 (2.39 to 4.06) |
| Recent | <6 | 425 | 4.7 | 1.25 (0.25 to 6.18) | 1.05 (0.21 to 5.20) |
| Past | <6 | 7822 | 0.4 | 0.52 (0.17 to 1.62) | 0.41 (0.13 to 1.30) |
| Other NIAA use¶ | |||||
| Current | 32 | 4700 | 6.8 | 0.88 (0.74 to 1.04) | 0.93 (0.79 to 1.10) |
| Recent | <6 | 357 | 5.6 | 1.45 (0.64 to 3.25) | 1.44 (0.64 to 3.20) |
| Past | <6 | 876 | 1.1 | 1.37 (1.21 to 1.56) | 1.37 (1.21 to 1.55) |
Current use=in previous 90 days from start of a 90 day interval; recent use=between 91 and 180 days from start of a 90 day interval; past use=more than 180 days from start of a 90 day interval. All analyses adjusted for current, recent, past use of all drug use groups.
*Adjusted for age and sex.
†Adjusted for age, sex, body mass index, alcohol use, smoking status, cardiovascular disease, chronic heart failure, and use of loop diuretics.
‡Sulphonylurea only use stratified by most recent dose: low dose, <5 mg glibenclamide equivalents; medium dose, 5-10 mg glibenclamide equivalents; high dose, >10 mg glibenclamide equivalents.
§Patients only received one prescription; a minimum of two are required to estimate the prescribed daily dose.
¶Other than sulphonylurea and metformin use.