Swiss recommendations of the Society for Endocrinology and Diabetes (SGED/SSED) for the treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus (2023)

Real-World Use of Oral Semaglutide in Adults with Type 2 Diabetes: The PIONEER REAL Switzerland Multicentre, Prospective, Observational Study

INTRODUCTION

Real-world data provide insight into how medications perform in clinical practice. The PIONEER REAL Switzerland study aimed to understand clinical outcomes with oral semaglutide in adults with type 2 diabetes (T2D).

METHODS

PIONEER REAL Switzerland was a 34-44-week, multicentre, prospective, non-interventional, single-arm study of adults with T2D naïve to injectable glucose-lowering medication who were initiated on oral semaglutide in routine clinical practice. The primary endpoint was change in glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c) from baseline (BL) to end of study (EOS); secondary endpoints included change in body weight (BW) from BL to EOS and the proportion of participants achieving HbA1c < 7.0% and the composite endpoints HbA1c reduction ≥ 1%-points with BW reduction ≥ 3% or ≥ 5% at EOS. Safety was assessed in participants who received ≥ 1 dose of oral semaglutide.

RESULTS

Of the 185 participants (female/male, n = 67/118) initiating oral semaglutide, 168 (90.8%) completed the study and 143 (77.3%) remained on treatment with oral semaglutide at EOS. At BL, participants had a mean age of 62 years, diabetes duration of 6.4 years, HbA1c of 7.7%, BW of 95.6 kg and body mass index of 33.2 kg/m2; 56.2% of participants were receiving glucose-lowering medications. Significant reductions were observed for HbA1c (estimated change - 0.91%; 95% confidence interval [CI] - 1.10, - 0.71; p < 0.0001) and BW (estimated change - 4.85%; 95% CI - 5.70, - 4.00; p < 0.0001). In total, 139 adverse events (AEs) were reported in 65 (35.1%) participants; most were mild or moderate. The most frequent AEs were gastrointestinal disorders (27.0%); 31 AEs in 20 (10.8%) participants led to discontinuation of oral semaglutide. Six serious AEs were reported; all were considered unlikely to be related to oral semaglutide.

CONCLUSION

People living with T2D treated with oral semaglutide in Switzerland achieved clinically significant reductions in HbA1c and BW, with no new safety signals.

CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION

ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT04537624. A graphical abstract is available for this article.

Trends in diabetes prevalence, awareness, treatment, and control in French-speaking Switzerland

Diabetes is increasing in Switzerland, but whether its management has improved is unknown. We aimed to assess diabetes prevalence, diagnosis, treatment, and control in French-speaking Switzerland. Our study used cross-sectional data for years 2005-2019 from a population-based study in Geneva, Switzerland. Overall prevalence (self-reported diagnosis and/or fasting plasma glucose level ≥ 7 mmol/L), diagnosed, treated (among diagnosed participants) and controlled diabetes (defined as a fasting plasma glucose FPG < 6.7 mmol/L among treated participants) were calculated for periods 2005-9, 2010-4 and 2015-9. Data from 12,348 participants (mean age ± standard deviation: 48.6 ± 13.5 years, 51.7% women) was used. Between 2005-9 and 2015-9, overall prevalence and frequency of diagnosed diabetes decreased (from 8.7 to 6.2% and from 7.0 to 5.2%, respectively). Among participants diagnosed with diabetes, treatment and control rates did not change from 44.1 to 51.9%, p = 0.251 and from 30.2 to 34.0%, p = 0.830, respectively. A trend towards higher treatment of participants with diabetes was found after multivariable adjustment, while no changes were found for overall prevalence, diagnosis, nor control. Among antidiabetic drugs, percentage of combinations increased from 12 to 23%; percentage of sulfonylureas and biguanides decreased from 15 to 6% and from 63 to 54%, respectively, while no trend was found for insulin. After multivariable analysis, women with diabetes were less likely to be treated but more likely to be controlled, the opposite association being found for obesity. In conclusion, in Canton Geneva, antidiabetic combination therapy is gaining importance, but only half of participants diagnosed with diabetes are treated, and glycaemic control remains poor.

Comparative safety of different recommended doses of sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 inhibitors in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus: a systematic review and network meta-analysis of randomized clinical trials

Objective

The safety results of different recommended doses of sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 inhibitors (SGLT-2i) for patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) remain uncertain. This study aims to comprehensively estimate and rank the relative safety outcomes with different doses of SGLT-2i for T2DM.

Methods

PubMed, Embase, the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, ClinicalTrials.gov, Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure, WanFang database, and SinoMed database were searched from the inception to 31 May 2023. We included double-blind randomized controlled trials (RCTs) comparing SGLT-2i with placebo or another antihyperglycemic as oral monotherapy in the adults with a diagnosis of T2DM.

Results

Twenty-five RCTs with 12,990 patients randomly assigned to 10 pharmacological interventions and placebo were included. Regarding genital infections (GI), all SGLT-2i, except for ertugliflozin and ipragliflozin, were associated with a higher risk of GI compared to placebo. Empagliflozin 10mg/d (88.2%, odds ratio [OR] 7.90, 95% credible interval [CrI] 3.39 to 22.08) may be the riskiest, followed by empagliflozin 25mg/d (83.4%, OR 7.22, 95%CrI 3.11 to 20.04)) and canagliflozin 300mg/d (70.8%, OR 5.33, 95%CrI 2.25 to 13.83) based on probability rankings. Additionally, dapagliflozin 10mg/d ranked highest for urinary tract infections (UTI, OR 2.11, 95%CrI 1.20 to 3.79, 87.2%), renal impairment (80.7%), and nasopharyngitis (81.6%) when compared to placebo and other treatments. No increased risk of harm was observed with different doses of SGLT-2i regarding hypoglycemia, acute kidney injury, diabetic ketoacidosis, or fracture. Further subgroup analysis by gender revealed no significantly increased risk of UTI. Dapagliflozin 10mg/d (91.9%) and canagliflozin 300mg/d (88.8%) ranked first in the female and male subgroups, respectively, according to the probability rankings for GI.

Conclusion

Current evidence indicated that SGLT-2i did not significantly increase the risk of harm when comparing different doses, except for dapagliflozin 10mg/d, which showed an increased risk of UTI and may be associated with a higher risk of renal impairment and nasopharyngitis. Additionally, compared with placebo and metformin, the risk of GI was notably elevated for empagliflozin 10mg/d, canagliflozin 300mg/d, and dapagliflozin 10mg/d. However, it is important to note that further well-designed RCTs with larger sample sizes are necessary to verify and optimize the current body of evidence.

Systematic Review Registration

https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/PROSPERO/, identifier CRD42023396023.

Characteristics, glycemic control and outcomes of adults with type-2 diabetes mellitus attending specialized clinics in primary healthcare centers in Bahrain-A cross-sectional study

Introduction

Diabetes mellitus is a global health challenge that requires continuous and multidisciplinary management. Suboptimal diabetes management results in serious complications that impose a huge burden on patients and the healthcare system. This study aimed to assess the characteristics, glycemic control and outcomes of patients with type-2 diabetes attending primary healthcare centers in Bahrain according to the new American Diabetes Association (ADA) guidelines.

Materials and Methods

A cross-sectional study was conducted among adult patients with type-2 diabetes mellitus attending diabetic clinics in Bahrain. A multi-stage sampling technique was adopted. The data collection tool consisted of three parts: baseline and sociodemographic data, the physical measures of the patients and the most recent laboratory results. An A1C of less than 7% was indicative of good glycemic control.

Results

A total of 721 patients with type-2 diabetes mellitus were included with an average age of 58.4 years. Most patients were hypertensive (n = 457, 63.4%), and half of them were hyperlipidemic (n = 373, 51.7%). Around 57% (n = 402) of the patients adopted lifestyle modifications, 14.8% adopted diet control measures and around half performed weekly regular exercises. More than 92% of the cohort were on metformin, 52.0% (n = 375) were on Sulphonylurea medications and 41% (n = 298) were on insulin formulations. While only 40% of the patients had controlled diabetes (n = 283, 39.3%) and hypertension (n = 298, 41.3%), most patients achieved adequate cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein levels (83.2% and 76.6%, respectively). Non-Bahraini (P ≤ 0.001), young (P = 0.027) and obese patients (P = 0.003) had lower glycemic control measures. Adequate cholesterol levels were seen more in patients with a controlled glycemic index (P = 0.015).

Conclusion

Considering the new glycemic targets, glycemic and hypertension control was poor among diabetic patients, especially non-Bahraini, obese and young patients. Urgent interventions by policymakers, physicians and caregivers are needed to improve the outcomes of diabetes.

Sleep well, but be active. Effect of sleep and sedentariness on incidence of diabetes

AIMS

We aimed to determine the individual effect of long/short sleep and of inactivity on diabetes risk using data from a population-based prospective study in Switzerland.

METHODS

Prospective study with a median (min-max) follow-up of 9 (2.4-11.5) years. Incident diabetes was defined based on 1) fasting plasma glucose (FPG), 2) glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c), or 3) any diagnostic criterion (FPG, HbA1c or medical diagnosis). Sleep and sedentary levels were assessed by questionnaire. Sleep was categorized into short (<7 h/day), adequate (7-9 h/day) and long (>9 h/day).

RESULTS

Data from 3355 participants (57.6% women, mean age years 56.6 ± 10.3) was analyzed. There were 136, 110 and 142 incident cases of diabetes defined by FPG, HbA1c or any criterion, respectively. Participants who developed diabetes had a higher sedentariness but no differences were found regarding sleep duration. Similar results were obtained after adjusting for age, gender, education, smoking and body mass index: hazard ratio (95% confidence interval) for sedentariness 1.61 (1.11-2.35), 1.40 (0.93-2.12) and 1.39 (1.04-1.87) for diabetes defined by FPG, HbA1c or any diagnostic criterion, respectively.

CONCLUSION

Being sedentary, but not being a long or a short sleeper, increases the risk of developing diabetes.