Effect of anti-diabetic drugs in dialysis patients with diabetes: a nationwide retrospective cohort study

BACKGROUND: Type 2 diabetes mellitus is common in patients undergoing dialysis. However, the association between anti-diabetic drug use and survival outcomes is rarely discussed. We aimed to investigate whether continued anti-diabetic medication use affects the survival of diabetic dialysis patients and whether different hypoglycemic drug use influences prognosis. METHODS: Using a nationwide database, we enrolled patients with incident end-stage renal disease under maintenance dialysis during 2011–2015 into the pre-existing diabetes dialysis (PDD), incident diabetes after dialysis (IDD), and non-diabetic dialysis (NDD) groups. The PDD group was further subclassified into patients who continued (PDD-M) and discontinued (PDD-NM) anti-diabetic drug use after dialysis. RESULTS: A total of 5249 dialysis patients were examined. The PDD-NM group displayed a significantly higher mortality rate than the IDD, PDD-M, and NDD groups (log-rank test P < 0.001). The PDD-M group had a significantly lower risk of death, regardless of insulin (P < 0.001) or oral hypoglycemic agent (OHA) (P < 0.001) use. Initial insulin administration or OHA had no statistically significant effect on overall mortality in the IDD group. But OHA use had better survival trends than insulin administration for the older (P = 0.02) and male subgroups (P = 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: For dialysis patients with diabetes, continuous administration of anti-diabetic drugs after dialysis and choice of medication may affect outcomes. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12933-021-01364-w.