Metformin linked to lower mortality in diabetes patients hospitalized with pneumonia

January 15, 2023

1 min read

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Mortensen reports no relevant financial disclosures. Please see the study for all other authors’ relevant financial disclosures.

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Prior metformin use was associated with better survival rates among people with diabetes within 3 months of being hospitalized with pneumonia, a study published in Clinical Infectious Diseases found.

“As several of the medications that diabetics take, including metformin, have potential beneficial properties for infections, we wanted to examine whether we could identify clinically significant impacts on survival in patients hospitalized with pneumonia,” Eric M. Mortensen, MD, MSc, professor and division chief of general internal medicine at UConn Health, told Healio.

Mohammed T, et al. Clin Infect Dis. 2022;doi:10.1093/cid/ciac900.

Mortensen and colleagues conducted a retrospective cohort study using national data from the Department of Veterans Affairs. According to the study, patients were included in the study if they were 65 years and older and had a history of diabetes, as well as hospitalization with pneumonia between 2002 and 2012. Among the cohort, metformin users were matched 1:1 with nonusers for comparative analysis.

In total, 34,759 patients who met the inclusion criteria were identified — 20.3% of whom were prescribed metformin.

The researchers found that the unadjusted 30-day mortality was 9.6% for those who received metformin and 13.9% for those who did not (P < .003). Similarly, 90-day mortality was 15.8% for those who received metformin vs. 23% for patients not given metformin (P < .0001).

In a propensity score model, the researchers also matched 6,899 metformin users to 6,899 nonusers and demonstrated that both 30-day (RR = 0.86; 95% CI, 0.78-0.95) and 90-day (RR = 0.85; 95% CI, 0.79). -0.92) mortality were “significantly lower” for metformin users.

“For diabetics, metformin not only lowers your blood sugar, it has many other potential impacts, including improving survival for those who develop severe infections,” Mortensen said. “Take your metformin.”

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