Fig. 3.

Subgroup analysis of forest plot of hazard ratio (HR) for SGLT2i versus DPP4i among T2DM patients after IPTW. Subgroup analysis showed consistent results for a lower risk of incident AF for SGLT2i vs. DPP4i among T2DM patients aged $\ge$ 65 years, female in gender, and those with cerebral vascular disease (CVA), ischemic heart disease (IHD), hypertension (HTN), hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) $\ge$ 8%, estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) < 60 ml/min/1.73 m², and the use of concomitant medications as the main analysis (P interaction > 0.05). Of note, the use of SGLT2i reduced the number of new-onset AF events in subgroups including those without previous history of heart failure, those with BMI < 25 kg/m², and those without concomitant use of renin-angiotensin system blockers (P interaction < 0.05). ACEI = angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor; ARB = angiotensin receptor blocker; ARNI = angiotensin receptor-neprilysin inhibitor; BMI = body mass index; CHF = congestive heart failure; CVA = cerebral vascular disease; eGFR = estimated glomerular filtration rate; HbA1c = hemoglobin A1c; HTN = hypertension; IHD = ischemic heart disease. Other abbreviations as in Figs. 1 and 2