Increased Risk of Hospitalization for Heart Failure with Newly Prescribed Dipeptidyl Peptidase-4 Inhibitors and Pioglitazone Using the Korean Health Insurance Claims Database

BACKGROUND: We assessed the association of dipeptidyl peptidase 4 inhibitors (DPP4i) with hospitalization for heart failure (HF) using the Korean Health Insurance claims database. METHODS: We collected data on newly prescribed sitagliptin, vildagliptin, and pioglitazone between January 1, 2009 and December 31, 2012 (mean follow-up of 336.8 days) to 935,519 patients with diabetes (518,614 males and 416,905 females) aged 40 to 79 years (mean age of 59.4 years). RESULTS: During the study, 998 patients were hospitalized for primary HF (115.7 per 100,000 patient-years). The incidence rate of hospitalization for HF was 117.7 per 100,000 per patient-years among patients on pioglitazone, 105.7 for sitagliptin, and 135.8 for vildagliptin. The hospitalization rate for HF was greatest in the first 30 days after starting the medication, which corresponded to a significantly higher incidence at days 0 to 30 compared with days 31 to 360 for all three drugs. The hazard ratios were 1.85 (pioglitazone), 2.00 (sitagliptin), and 1.79 (vildagliptin). The incidence of hospitalization for HF did not differ between the drugs for any time period. CONCLUSION: This study showed an increase in hospitalization for HF in the initial 30 days of the DPP4i and pioglitazone compared with the subsequent follow-up period. However, the differences between the drugs were not significant.