Continuous Glucose Monitoring and Mortality Risk Among U.S. Veterans Receiving Dialysis With Diabetes

Patients receiving dialysis who have diabetes have a high burden of dysglycemia. Whereas traditional glycemic markers have limited accuracy and convenience in dialysis, continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) provides automated, less invasive, and more comprehensive glycemic data than do conventional measures. However, it remains unclear whether CGM is associated with improved clinical outcomes in patients undergoing dialysis.

We examined the association between CGM use versus non-CGM use and survival among U.S. veterans receiving dialysis who also have diabetes, using linked national Veterans Affairs, U.S. Renal Data System, and Medicare data. We examined data from veterans undergoing dialysis and with diabetes with incident CGM use (newly prescribed CGM) versus non-CGM use over the period January 2012 to December 2023 matched by propensity score (PS) to address confounding by indication and who were followed for all-cause mortality events through February 2025. Associations of CGM use versus non-CGM use with death were evaluated using complete case analysis and multiple imputation.

Among 2,008 patients in the complete case analysis cohort, CGM use was associated with a lower mortality risk in PS-matched unadjusted and doubly adjusted Cox models (reference: non-CGM use; hazard ratio [HR] 0.86 [95% CI 0.76, 0.98]; and 0.83 [95% CI 0.75, 0.92], respectively). Among 3,088 patients in the multiple imputation cohort, CGM use was also associated with greater survival in PS-matched unadjusted and doubly adjusted Cox models (HR 0.88 [95% CI 0.77, 0.99]; and 0.84 [95% CI 0.73, 0.96], respectively).

In veterans receiving dialysis who also had diabetes, incident CGM use was associated with better survival versus non-CGM use. Further studies are needed to determine underlying mechanisms and the impact of CGM on other dialysis outcomes.