27 Mar 2023 • As per a recent article published in the Journal of American Medical Association, in comparison to sulfonylureas, Metformin was linked to a significantly lower risk of developing Osteoarthritis(OA)in a large nation-wide study cohort. What were the findings of the study?

• In a retrospective cohort study of nearly 21,000 adults with diabetes, those who were taking metformin saw a 24% lower risk for developing OA compared with those taking a sulfonylurea, according to Matthew Baker, MD, MS, of Stanford University and colleagues.
• There was no significant change in the risk of joint replacement.
• Metformin-treated patients saw an OA incidence rate of 27.5 events per 1,000 person-years vs 39.6 events per 1,000 person-years for those treated with a sulfonylurea, the group wrote in JAMA Network Open.
• Again, risk of needing joint replacement was not statistically significant.
• Taking this one step further, Baker's group stratified the analysis according to patients treated with a sulfonylurea who were previously treated with metformin.
• Here, the risk reduction for OA was not significantly different from current metformin users. But these patients previously exposed to metformin still had a significantly lower OA risk than those never exposed.

Conclusions & Relevance: In this cohort study of individuals with diabetes, metformin treatment was associated with a significant reduction in the risk of developing OA compared with sulfonylurea treatment. These results further support preclinical and observational data that suggest metformin may have a protective association against the development of OA; future interventional studies with metformin for the treatment or prevention of OA should be considered

Source: JAMA Network Open | Read full story