Incidence and predictors of hypoglycemia in Japanese patients with type 2 diabetes treated by insulin glargine and oral antidiabetic drugs in real-life: ALOHA post-marketing surveillance study sub-analysis

BACKGROUND Add-on Lantus® to Oral Hypoglycemic Agents (ALOHA), an observational, non-interventional, 24-week post-marketing surveillance study in Japanese patients with type 2 diabetes (T2DM) having uncontrolled glycemic control, demonstrated that basal supported oral therapy (BOT) with insulin glargine was an effective and safe treatment in real-life clinical practice. We performed subgroup analysis to identify incidence and predictors associated with risk of hypoglycemia. METHODS Among 4219 patients with T2DM, 3732 patients were insulin-naïve and 487 patients were insulin non-naïve who switched from other insulin to insulin glargine. All hypoglycemic episodes were counted by physicians' documentation based on patients' reports. Relationships between baseline patient characteristics and glargine-related hypoglycemic episodes were examined by univariate and multivariate analysis. RESULTS Among 4219 patients, 44 (1.0%) patients experienced hypoglycemic episodes (41 insulin-naïve patients; 3 insulin non-naïve patients), with a rate of incidence 0.035 episodes/patient-years. Majority of patients with hypoglycemia (37 of 44) had just one hypoglycemic episode during study period. Among insulin-naïve patients, incidence of hypoglycemia differed significantly depending on age, diabetic complications, estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR), and postprandial plasma glucose (P <0.05). In a multivariate adjusted model, poor renal function (eGFR <60 mL/min/1.73 m2) was a statistically significant risk factor (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION Our results suggest that BOT using insulin glargine is an option of insulin therapy with 1% risk of hypoglycemia in patients with T2DM with inadequate glycemic control. Patients with low renal function might need a careful follow-up.