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Aim: To evaluate the effectiveness of empagliflozin in clinical practice in East Asia in the Empagliflozin Comparative Effectiveness and Safety (EMPRISE) East Asia study. Materials and methods: Data were obtained from the Medical Data Vision database (Japan), National Health Insurance Service database (South Korea) and National Health Insurance database (Taiwan). Patients aged ≥ 18 years with type 2 diabetes initiating empagliflozin or a dipeptidyl peptidase‐4 (DPP‐4) inhibitor were 1:1 propensity score (PS) matched into sequentially built cohorts of new users naïve to both drug classes. This design reduces confounding due to switching treatments, time lag and immortal time biases. Outcomes included hospitalization for heart failure (HHF), end‐stage renal disease (ESRD) and all‐cause mortality. Hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% CIs were estimated using Cox proportional models, controlling for > 130 baseline characteristics in each data source and pooled by random‐effects meta‐analysis. Results: Overall, 28 712 pairs of PS‐matched patients were identified with mean follow‐up of 5.7‐6.8 months. Compared with DPP‐4 inhibitors, the risk of HHF was reduced by 18% and all‐cause mortality was reduced by 36% with empagliflozin (HR 0.82; 95% CI 0.71‐0.94, and HR 0.64; 95% CI 0.50‐0.81, respectively). Reductions were consistent across countries, and in patients with and without baseline cardiovascular disease. ESRD was also significantly reduced with empagliflozin versus DPP‐4 inhibitors (HR 0.37; 95% CI 0.24‐0.58). Conclusions: Empagliflozin treatment was associated with reduced risk for HHF, all‐cause mortality and ESRD compared with DPP‐4 inhibitors in routine clinical practice in Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: To estimate the rate of adherence to oral antihyperglycemic monotherapy for patients with type 2 diabetes in the US and describe factors associated with adherence in these patients. Materials and methods: In this retrospective cohort analysis, patients aged 18 years or older with a type 2 diabetes diagnosis received between 1 January 2007 and 31 March 2010 were identified using a large US-based health care claims database. The index date was defined as the date of the first prescription for oral antihyperglycemic monotherapy during this period. Patients had to have continuous enrollment in the claims database for 12 months before and after the index date. Adherence was assessed using proportion of days covered (PDC) and an adjusted logistic regression analysis was performed to evaluate factors associated with adherence (PDC ?80%). Results: Of the 133,449 eligible patients, the mean age was 61 years and 51% were men. Mean PDC was 75% and the proportion of patients adherent to oral antihyperglycemic monotherapy was 59%. Both mean PDC and PDC ?80% increased with increasing age and the number of concomitant medications, and were slightly higher in men compared to women. Results from the logistic regression demonstrate an increased likelihood of non-adherence for patients who were younger, new to therapy, on a twice-daily dose, female, or on fewer than three concomitant medications compared to their reference groups. Higher average daily out-of-pocket pharmacy expense was also associated with an increased likelihood of non-adherence. All results were statistically significant (P?0.05). Conclusion: Patient characteristics, treatment regimens, and out-of-pocket expenses were associated with adherence to oral antihyperglycemic monotherapy in our study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To quantify willingness-to-pay (WTP) for reducing pill burden and dosing frequency among patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), and to examine the effect of dosing frequency and pill burden on likely medication adherence. Patients and methods: Participants were US adults with T2DM on oral antihyperglycemic therapy. Each patient completed an online discrete-choice experiment (DCE) with eight choice questions, each including a pair of hypothetical medication profiles. Each profile was defined by reduction in average glucose (AG), daily dosing, chance of mild-to-moderate stomach problems, frequency of hypoglycemia, weight change, incremental risk of congestive heart failure (CHF), and cost. Patients were asked to rate their likely adherence to the profiles presented in each question. Choice questions were based on a predetermined experimental design. Choice data were analyzed using random-parameters logit. Likely treatment adherence was analyzed using a Heckman two-stage model. Results: Of the 1,114 patients who completed the survey, 90 had lower dosing burden (,5 pills/day taken once/day or as needed) for all medications, and 1,024 had higher dosing burden ($5 pills/day or more than once/day). Reduction in AG was valued most highly by patients. Hypoglycemia, chance of mild-to-moderate stomach problems, weight change, incremental risk of CHF, and daily dosing were less valued. Patients with higher current dosing burden had lower WTP for more convenient dosing schedules than patients with lower current dosing burden. Changes in dosing and cost impacted likely adherence. The magnitude of the impact of dosing on likely adherence was higher for patients with lower current dosing burden than for patients with higher current dosing burden. Conclusion: Patients with T2DM were willing to pay for improvements in efficacy, side effects, and dosing. Patients' WTP for more convenient dosing depended on current dosing burden, as did the effect of these attributes on likely adherence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To evaluate methods to assess peripheral edema for reliability, feasibility and correlation with the classic clinical assessment of pitting edema. Design: Cross-sectional observational study. Setting: Large primary care clinic in Marshfield, Wisconsin, USA. Participants: Convenience sample of 20 patients with type 2 diabetes and a range of edema severity, including patients without edema. Methods: Eight methods of edema assessment were evaluated: (1) clinical assessment of pit depth and recovery at three locations, (2) patient questionnaire, (3) ankle circumference, (4) figure-of-eight (ankle circumference using eight ankle/foot landmarks), (5) edema tester (plastic card with holes of varying size pressed to the ankle with a blood pressure cuff), (6) modified edema tester (edema tester with bumps), (7) indirect leg volume (by series of ankle/leg circumferences), and (8) food/ankle volumetry by water displacement. Patients were evaluated independently by three nurse examiners. Results: Water displacement and ankle circumference had high inter-examiner agreement (intraclass correlation coefficient 0.93. 0.96 right; 0.97. 0.97 left). Agreement was inconsistent for figure-of-eight (0.64, 0.86), moderate for indirect leg volume (0.53, 0.66), and low for clinical assessments at all locations. Agreement was low for the edema testers but varied by the pressure administered. Correlation with the classic, subjective clinical assessment was good for the nurse-performed assessments and patient questionnaire. Ankle circumference and patient questionnaires each took I minute to complete. Other tools took >5 minutes to complete. Conclusions: Water displacement and ankle circumference showed excellent reliability; however, water displacement is a time-consuming measure and may pose implementation challenges in the clinical and clinical trial environments. Patient-reported level and frequency of edema, based on an unvalidated questionnaire, was generally well correlated with the physician assessment of edema severity and may prove to be another reliable and accurate method of assessing edema. Additional study is needed to evaluate the validity and responsiveness of these methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The EMPA‐REG OUTCOME trial showed that empagliflozin reduced the risk of cardiovascular death and hospitalization for heart failure (HHF) in diabetic patients with cardiovascular disease. EMPRISE is a study programme on the effectiveness, safety and healthcare utilization of empagliflozin in routine care, leveraging real‐world data from two commercial and one federal US data sources from 2014 to 2019. Objectives: To describe rationale and design of EMPRISE, assess ability to minimize confounding and evaluate the time to reach sufficient statistical power for a key study outcome, HHF, using baseline information from the first year of EMPRISE. Methods: In 3 claims data sets, we identified a 1:1 propensity score (PS)‐matched cohort of diabetic patients ≥18 years initiating empagliflozin or a dipeptidyl peptidase‐4 inhibitor (DPP4i), resulting in 6643 total pairs. The PS model included >140 baseline covariates. We measured covariate balance via standardized differences (SD) and postmatching c‐statistic. We computed the incidence rate (IR) of HHF, predicted exposure accrual over time and calculated expected power. Results: After PS matching, patient characteristics were balanced with SD <0.1 and c‐statistic between 0.54 and 0.59. The population IR of HHF was 4.4 per 1000 person‐years using a specific HHF definition and 14.8 using a broader HHF definition. In our projection, 80%‐powered analyses would require a minimum of 169 HHF events, expected to accumulate by year 3 (specific definition) or year 2 (broader definition). Conclusion: Baseline information from EMPRISE provided evidence of solid confounding control and adequate exposure accrual with expected powered analyses for the primary outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Real world data on the cardiovascular (CV) safety and effectiveness of linagliptin (LINA) complement trial data from CARMELINA, which showed CV safety, and CAROLINA (results pending). As part of a 5-year (05/2011-12/2016) post-marketing monitoring program, using 2 large insurance claims databases, we assessed the risk of a composite CV (cCV) outcome (hospitalization for myocardial infarction, stroke, unstable angina, or coronary revascularization). We identified three 1:1 propensity score (PS)-matched cohorts of type 2 diabetes mellitus patients who initiated linagliptin or a comparator [other DPP-4is (n=39,834 pairs), pioglitazone (PIO; n=29,646 pairs), or sulfonylureas (SU; n=25,285 pairs). We estimated pooled HR and 95% CI controlling for over 180 baseline characteristics. After PS-matching, patient characteristics were similar (Table 1) and mean follow-up was 0.8 years. LINA had a similar risk of the cCV outcome compared to other DPP-4is [HR (95% CI) = 0.90 (0.80-1.02)] and PIO [HR (95% CI) = 0.99 (0.86-1.13)], but was associated with a reduced risk compared to SU [HR (95% CI) = 0.77 (0.66-0.90)] (Table 1). Results were robust across numerous sensitivity analyses. These real-world data show that LINA has reassuring effectiveness and safety on a cCV outcome compared to other DPP-4is and PIO, and is associated with a decreased risk compared to SU. Disclosure: E. Patorno: Research Support; Self; National Institute on Aging. Other Relationship; Self; Boehringer Ingelheim International GmbH. C. Gopalakrishnan: None. M. Mahesri: None. K.G. Brodovicz: Employee; Self; Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc. D. Bartels: Employee; Self; BI X GmbH, Boehringer Ingelheim International GmbH. A. Meyers: Employee; Self; Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc. J. Barberio: None. J. Liu: None. S. Schneeweiss: Consultant; Self; Aetion, WHISCON, LLC. Funding: Boehringer Ingelheim [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: To evaluate the effectiveness of empagliflozin in clinical practice in East Asia in the Empagliflozin Comparative Effectiveness and Safety (EMPRISE) East Asia study., Materials and Methods: Data were obtained from the Medical Data Vision database (Japan), National Health Insurance Service database (South Korea) and National Health Insurance database (Taiwan). Patients aged ≥ 18 years with type 2 diabetes initiating empagliflozin or a dipeptidyl peptidase-4 (DPP-4) inhibitor were 1:1 propensity score (PS) matched into sequentially built cohorts of new users naïve to both drug classes. This design reduces confounding due to switching treatments, time lag and immortal time biases. Outcomes included hospitalization for heart failure (HHF), end-stage renal disease (ESRD) and all-cause mortality. Hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% CIs were estimated using Cox proportional models, controlling for > 130 baseline characteristics in each data source and pooled by random-effects meta-analysis., Results: Overall, 28 712 pairs of PS-matched patients were identified with mean follow-up of 5.7-6.8 months. Compared with DPP-4 inhibitors, the risk of HHF was reduced by 18% and all-cause mortality was reduced by 36% with empagliflozin (HR 0.82; 95% CI 0.71-0.94, and HR 0.64; 95% CI 0.50-0.81, respectively). Reductions were consistent across countries, and in patients with and without baseline cardiovascular disease. ESRD was also significantly reduced with empagliflozin versus DPP-4 inhibitors (HR 0.37; 95% CI 0.24-0.58)., Conclusions: Empagliflozin treatment was associated with reduced risk for HHF, all-cause mortality and ESRD compared with DPP-4 inhibitors in routine clinical practice in Japan, South Korea and Taiwan., (© 2020 The Authors. Endocrinology, Diabetes & Metabolism published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)