TY - JOUR
T1 - Telmisartan use and risk of dementia in type 2 diabetes patients with hypertension
T2 - A population-based cohort study
AU - Liu, Chi Hung
AU - Sung, Pi Shan
AU - Li, Yan Rong
AU - Huang, Wen Kuan
AU - Lee, Tay Wey
AU - Huang, Chin Chang
AU - Lee, Tsong Hai
AU - Chen, Tien Hsing
AU - Wei, Yi Chia
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 Liu et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
PY - 2021/7
Y1 - 2021/7
N2 - Background Angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs) may have protective effects against dementia occurrence in patients with hypertension (HTN). However, whether telmisartan, an ARB with peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ (PPAR-γ)-modulating effects, has additional benefits compared to other ARBs remains unclear. Methods and findings Between 1997 and 2013, 2,166,944 type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) patients were identified from the National Health Insurance Research Database of Taiwan. Patients with HTN using ARBs were included in the study. Patients with a history of stroke, traumatic brain injury, or dementia were excluded. Finally, 65,511 eligible patients were divided into 2 groups: The telmisartan group and the non-telmisartan ARB group. Propensity score matching (1:4) was used to balance the distribution of baseline characteristics and medications. The primary outcome was the diagnosis of dementia. The secondary outcomes included the diagnosis of Alzheimer disease and occurrence of symptomatic ischemic stroke (IS), any IS, and allcause mortality. The risks between groups were compared using a Cox proportional hazard model. Statistical significance was set at p < 0.05. There were 2,280 and 9,120 patients in the telmisartan and non-telmisartan ARB groups, respectively. Patients in the telmisartan group had a lower risk of dementia diagnosis (telmisartan versus non-telmisartan ARBs: 2.19% versus 3.20%; HR, 0.72; 95% CI, 0.53 to 0.97; p = 0.030). They also had lower risk dementia diagnosis with IS as a competing risk (subdistribution HR, 0.70; 95% CI, 0.51 to 0.95; p = 0.022) and with all-cause mortality as a competing risk (subdistribution HR, 0.71; 95% CI, 0.53 to 0.97; p = 0.029). In addition, the telmisartan users had a lower risk of any IS (6.84% versus 8.57%; HR, 0.79; 95% CI, 0.67 to 0.94; p = 0.008) during long-term followup. Study limitations included potential residual confounding by indication, interpretation of causal effects in an observational study, and bias caused by using diagnostic and medication codes to represent real clinical data. Conclusions The current study suggests that telmisartan use in hypertensive T2DM patients may be associated with a lower risk of dementia and any IS events in an East-Asian population.
AB - Background Angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs) may have protective effects against dementia occurrence in patients with hypertension (HTN). However, whether telmisartan, an ARB with peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ (PPAR-γ)-modulating effects, has additional benefits compared to other ARBs remains unclear. Methods and findings Between 1997 and 2013, 2,166,944 type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) patients were identified from the National Health Insurance Research Database of Taiwan. Patients with HTN using ARBs were included in the study. Patients with a history of stroke, traumatic brain injury, or dementia were excluded. Finally, 65,511 eligible patients were divided into 2 groups: The telmisartan group and the non-telmisartan ARB group. Propensity score matching (1:4) was used to balance the distribution of baseline characteristics and medications. The primary outcome was the diagnosis of dementia. The secondary outcomes included the diagnosis of Alzheimer disease and occurrence of symptomatic ischemic stroke (IS), any IS, and allcause mortality. The risks between groups were compared using a Cox proportional hazard model. Statistical significance was set at p < 0.05. There were 2,280 and 9,120 patients in the telmisartan and non-telmisartan ARB groups, respectively. Patients in the telmisartan group had a lower risk of dementia diagnosis (telmisartan versus non-telmisartan ARBs: 2.19% versus 3.20%; HR, 0.72; 95% CI, 0.53 to 0.97; p = 0.030). They also had lower risk dementia diagnosis with IS as a competing risk (subdistribution HR, 0.70; 95% CI, 0.51 to 0.95; p = 0.022) and with all-cause mortality as a competing risk (subdistribution HR, 0.71; 95% CI, 0.53 to 0.97; p = 0.029). In addition, the telmisartan users had a lower risk of any IS (6.84% versus 8.57%; HR, 0.79; 95% CI, 0.67 to 0.94; p = 0.008) during long-term followup. Study limitations included potential residual confounding by indication, interpretation of causal effects in an observational study, and bias caused by using diagnostic and medication codes to represent real clinical data. Conclusions The current study suggests that telmisartan use in hypertensive T2DM patients may be associated with a lower risk of dementia and any IS events in an East-Asian population.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85110309213&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85110309213&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1371/journal.pmed.1003707
DO - 10.1371/journal.pmed.1003707
M3 - Article
C2 - 34280191
AN - SCOPUS:85110309213
SN - 1549-1277
VL - 18
JO - PLoS Medicine
JF - PLoS Medicine
IS - 7
M1 - e1003707
ER -