Prescriptions of newer glucose regulating agents in older hospitalized patients with type 2 diabetes A retrospective cohort study

Aims: GLP-1-analogues, DPP4-inhibitors, and SGLT2-inhibitors have become available to treat type 2 diabetes. The extent to which these glucose regulating agents (GRA) are prescribed to older patients is unknown.Methods: We performed a retrospective observational cohort study including all clinical admissions of patients with one or more prescriptions for non-insulin GRA between 2017 and 2021. We analyzed prescription trends and differences in prescription prevalences for frail and non-frail older patients, as well as older (>= 70 years) versus younger patients.Results: In total 11.5% of admissions had one prescription or more of newer GRA; GLP-1-analogues 1.6%, DPP4-inhibitors 7.3% and SGLT2-inhibitors 2.3%. Total prescription prevalence increased from 8.4% to 16.3% (p < 0.001). Prescription prevalence was 11.1% (N = 129) in admissions of frail patients versus 14.6% (N = 344) of non-frail patients (p = 0.005) and 15.0% in admissions of younger patients versus 11.5% of older patients (p < 0.001).Conclusions: Prescription prevalence of newer GRA in clinical admissions of older patients (> 70 years) increased from 2017 to 2021. Prevalence was lower in admissions of frail and older patients, possibly because they are undertreated due to a lack of clear recommendations for older patients in guidelines and underrepresentation in clinical trials.(c) 2023 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Masson SAS. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)