The Journal of clinical endocrinology and metabolismJul 1, 2022

New cases of irregular heartbeat in type 2 diabetes patients using new blood sugar medicines

GLP-1 Therapies Weekly Brief ↗PubMed ↗DOI ↗

Updated Mar 26, 2026

Abstract

SGLT2 inhibitors are associated with a 72% lower risk of new-onset atrial fibrillation compared to GLP-1 receptor agonists in patients with type 2 diabetes.

Patients treated with SGLT2 inhibitors showed a subdistribution hazard ratio of 0.72 for new-onset atrial fibrillation compared to those on GLP-1 receptor agonists.
This association was statistically significant with a P-value of 0.028.
Subgroup analyses indicated that the lower risk was consistent among older patients, female patients, and those with cardiovascular disease or chronic kidney disease.
The study utilized data from 16,566 patients on SGLT2 inhibitors and 2,746 patients on GLP-1 receptor agonists.

Simplified

CONTEXT: Whether sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 inhibitors (SGLT2is) are associated with lower risk of new-onset atrial fibrillation (AF) compared with glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1RAs) in patients with type 2 diabetes was unknown.

OBJECTIVE: We aimed to determine the comparative risk of new-onset AF with SGLT2is vs GLP-1RAs in Asian patients with type 2 diabetes in a real-world setting.

METHODS: We used medical data from a multicenter health care provider in Taiwan and enrolled 16 566 and 2746 patients treated with an SGLT2i and a GLP-1RA, respectively, from January 1, 2016, to December 31, 2018. Propensity score weighting was used to balance the baseline covariates. The patients were followed from the drug index date until the occurrence of new-onset AF or the end of the follow-up period.

RESULTS: In this study, 54%, 45%, and 1% of the SGLT2i group patients were treated with empagliflozin, dapagliflozin, and canagliflozin, respectively, and 65% and 35% of the GLP-1RA group patients were treated with liraglutide and dulaglutide, respectively. SGLT2is were associated with lower risk of new-onset AF compared with GLP-1RAs after inverse probability of treatment weighting (subdistribution hazard ratio: 0.72; 95% CI, 0.54-0.97; P = 0.028). Subgroup analysis revealed that this finding was consistent among the following high-risk subgroups: older patients, female patients, and patients with cardiovascular disease or chronic kidney disease.

CONCLUSION: SGLT2is were associated with lower risk of new-onset AF compared with GLP-1RAs among patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus in a real-world practice.

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New cases of irregular heartbeat in type 2 diabetes patients using new blood sugar medicines

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