The association between SGLT2 inhibitors and new-onset arrhythmias: a nationwide population-based longitudinal cohort study

BACKGROUND: Clinical trials have shown the cardiovascular protective effect of sodium–glucose cotransporter-2 (SGLT2) inhibitors and reduced hospitalization for heart failure. However, no study has investigated the association between SGLT2 inhibitors and the risk of arrhythmias. This study aimed to evaluate the risk of new-onset arrhythmias (NOA) and all-cause mortality with the use of SGLT2 inhibitors. METHODS: This was a population-based cohort study utilizing Taiwan’s National Health Insurance Research Database. Each patient aged 20 years and older who took SGLT2 inhibitors was assigned to the SGLT2 inhibitor group, whereas sex-, age-, diabetes mellitus duration-, drug index date-, and propensity score-matched randomly selected patients without SGLT2 inhibitors were assigned to the non-SGLT2 inhibitor group. The study outcome was all-cause mortality and NOA. RESULTS: A total of 399,810 patients newly diagnosed with type 2 DM were enrolled. A 1:1 matching propensity method was used to match 79,150 patients to 79,150 controls in the non-SGLT2 inhibitors group for analysis. The SGLT2 inhibitor group was associated with a lower risk of all-cause mortality [adjusted hazard ratio (aHR) 0.547; 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.482–0.621; P = 0.0001] and NOA (aHR 0.830; 95% CI 0.751–0.916; P = 0.0002). CONCLUSIONS: Patients with type 2 DM prescribed with SGLT2 inhibitors were associated with a lower risk of all-cause mortality and NOA compared with those not taking SGLT2 inhibitors in real-world practice.