Patient characteristics associated with improvement in glycemic control following addition of an oral antidiabetic drug to DPP-4 inhibitor monotherapy in Japanese patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (JDDM 60)

The current study evaluated patient demographics and clinical characteristics that associated with HbA1c reduction following addition of one oral antidiabetic drug (OAD) to DPP4i monotherapy.A retrospective study was conducted using CoDiC database. Adult T2DM patients treated with sitagliptin monotherapy for ≥ 6 months and adding one OAD were extracted. Association between patient characteristics at the time of add-on OAD and following HbA1c reduction was assessed.Of 444 included patients, mean age was 62 years and 33% were female. All add-on OAD classes demonstrated further HbA1c reduction (p < 0.05). The majority received biguanide (BG; 61%) or sulfonylurea (SU; 25%) add-on therapy. BG and SU groups showed a significant association between higher baseline HbA1c categories and greater HbA1c reductions (BG: - 0.24 to - 1.75%, p < 0.0001; SU: - 0.15 to - 2.11%, p < 0.0001). Lower HDL-cholesterol/higher non-HDL-cholesterol (BG), male gender (SU), and lower SBP (SU) were associated with larger HbA1c reductions. The results for baseline HbA1c (BG and SU) and gender (SU) were also confirmed by multivariate analysis.The majority of Japanese T2DM patients on sitagliptin monotherapy who require an add-on OAD utilized BG or SU. There were 2 determinants of glycemic response: baseline HbA1c with BG and SU and gender with SU during add-on OAD therapy.The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s13340-021-00514-5.