Persons with type 2 diabetes and high insulin persistence were associated with a lower risk of mortality: A nationwide retrospective cohort study

AIMS/INTRODUCTION: Studies assessing the long‐term outcomes of insulin persistence are scant. We compared the risk of all‐cause mortality among patients with different degrees of insulin persistence. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In total, 293,210 patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus undergoing insulin therapy were enrolled during 2002–2014. Insulin persistence was defined as continual insulin treatment without a 90‐day gap of discontinuation in the 2‐year observation period. Mortality rates were compared between 111,220 patients with ≥90% insulin persistence and 111,220 matched patients with <90% insulin persistence during the observational period. RESULTS: During the mean 5.37‐year follow‐up period, the mortality rates were 58.26 and 73.21 per 1,000 person‐years for patients with ≥90% and <90% of insulin persistence. The adjusted hazard ratio for mortality was 0.80 (95% confidence interval 0.79–0.81, P < 0.001). Patients with high insulin persistence had significantly lower risks than did those with low insulin persistence of death due to hypertension, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, liver disease, kidney disease, respiratory disease, sepsis and cancer. CONCLUSIONS: This study showed that patients with ≥90% insulin persistence were associated with lower risks of all‐cause mortality than did patients with <90% insulin persistence.