Treatment variation related to comorbidity and complications in type 2 diabetes: A real world analysis

A complex comorbidity status may cause treatment variance interfering with type 2 diabetes (T2D) guideline-confirm therapy and influence the occurrence of complications but evidence on its relationships and alternative treatments are lacking. This study aimed to identify treatment variance and common T2D drug treatment related to comorbid status and the association with comorbidity and complications.Based on Korean National Health Insurance Service-National Sample Cohort (NHIS-NSC) databases, we conducted a retrospective, observational exploratory study including 7123 T2D patients without microvascular-, macrovascular complication. We explored patterns of comorbid status and drug treatment and its relation to the development of complications within 4-year period. Analysis was performed by two-step cluster analysis and nonlinear canonical correlation analysis.64.9% had at least one other chronic disease and 61.7% of T2D patients were treated with >1 glucose lowering drugs. 15.8% developed microvascular complications and 6.5% had ischemic heart disease or cerebrovascular complications. 82.2% of the treatment patterns were identified among T2D patients with 1 or no comorbidity while 14.4% was identified in patients with ≥2 comorbidities. Combination treatment such as, sulfonylurea or dipeptidyl peptidase-4 inhibitors combined with metformin were observed. Occurrence of microvascular- or/and macrovascular complication and its relation to comorbidity and treatment pattern was not identified.In conclusion, as number of comorbidity increased with both type of comorbidity (diabetes related-, unrelated) present, common treatment patterns were less or not identified. More treatment variance was observed in patient's groups that had developed complications.