Regular and prolonged use of PPIs associated with higher risk of diabetes: Study

It is still debated whether prolonged use of proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) might affect metabolic health. A study was conducted to investigate the relationship between prolonged use of PPIs and the risk of developing diabetes.

Researchers performed a case-control study nested into a cohort of 777,420 patients newly treated with PPIs between 2010 and 2015 in Lombardy, Italy. A total of 50,535 cases diagnosed with diabetes until 2020 were matched with an equal number of controls that were randomly selected from the cohort members according to age, sex, and clinical status. Exposure to treatment with PPIs was assessed in case-control pairs based on the time of therapy. A conditional logistic regression model was fitted to estimate the odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for the exposure-outcome association, after adjusting for several covariates. Sensitivity analyses were performed to evaluate the robustness of our findings.

The results of the study are:

• Compared to patients who used PPIs for <8 weeks, higher odds of diabetes of 19% (95% CI, 15-24%), 43% (38-49%), and 56% (49-64%) were observed among those who used PPIs for between 8 weeks and 6 months, 6 months and 2 years, and >2 years, respectively.
• The results were consistent when analyses were stratified according to age, sex and clinical profile, with higher ORs being found in younger patients and those with worse clinical complexity. Sensitivity analyses revealed that the association was consistent and robust.

Thus, regular and prolonged use of PPIs is associated with a higher risk of diabetes. Physicians should therefore avoid unnecessary prescription of this class of drugs, particularly for long-term use.

Reference:

Prolonged use of proton pump inhibitors and risk of type 2 diabetes: results from a large population-based nested case-control study by Stefano Ciardullo et al. published in The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.

doi: 10.1210/clinem/dgac231.

Keywords:

Prolonged, use, proton pump inhibitors, risk, type 2 diabetes, results, large, population,-based nested, case-control, study, Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, Stefano Ciardullo, Federico Rea, Laura Savaré, Gabriella Morabito, Gianluca Perseghin, Giovanni Corrao, PPI; diabetes; microbiota; pharmacoepidemiology