What Next after Metformin? A Retrospective Evaluation of the Outcome of Second-Line, Glucose-Lowering Therapies in People with Type 2 Diabetes

 The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism: October 17, 2012

After failure of metformin monotherapy, many second-line, glucose-lowering therapies are available to treat people with type 2 diabetes.

Objective: The objective of the study was to compare clinical outcomes using common alternative regimens.

Design and Setting: This was a retrospective cohort study using data from the U.K.-based General Practice Research Database.

Patients: These were primary care patients with type 2 diabetes who had metformin monotherapy as their first treatment and who then initiated on relevant second-line, glucose-lowering regimens during the study period 2000–2010. A total of 27,457 patients were prescribed a second-line therapy, of whom 26,278 (95.7%) were prescribed a regimen with 1,000 or more observations. Read more