Real-life experience of patients starting insulin degludec. A multicenter analysis of 1064 subjects from the German/Austrian DPV registry.

BACKGROUND: The long-acting insulin analogue degludec is a therapeutic option for patients with type 1 (T1D) or type 2 diabetes (T2D). Aim of this analysis was to investigate differences in clinical characteristics of patients before and after initiating degludec use in a cohort of German/Austrian patients.

METHODS: 1064 subjects with T1D/T2D and documented degludec use from the Diabetes-Patient-Follow-Up (DPV) registry were included. The follow-up cohort (n=421) comprised patients with available data before and 3-15months after switching to degludec. A t-test for paired values was implemented to compare rates of severe hypoglycaemia, and mean values for HbA1C , BMI, basal insulin dose/kg bodyweight/day, and the number of basal insulin injections/day before and after switching to degludec Results were stratified by type of diabetes. In T1D, subgroup analyses were conducted (age, sex, basal insulin used before switching). P<0.05 was considered significant.

FINDINGS: In T1D (n=360), basal insulin dose (0.43±0.17 to 0.38±0.13IU) and the number of basal injections/day (1.7±0.6 to 1.1±0.3) decreased whereas BMI increased from 23.2±4.8 to 24.0±5.0kg/m2 (all p<0.0001) after switching to degludec. No significant changes were observed regarding rates of severe hypoglycaemia or HbA1C -values. Findings were comparable for subgroups. In T2D (n=61), basal insulin dose (0.41±0.23 to 0.38±0.21; p=0.1730) and the number of basal injections/day (1.3±0.4 to 1.1±0.3; p=0.0097) decreased after switching to degludec. HbA1C improved from 7.9±1.6 to 7.1±1.5% (p<0.0001).

CONCLUSIONS: The DPV registry provides data from real-life diabetes care. Our analysis predominantly confirmed results from clinical trials and provides additional information complementing the clinical study program of degludec.