Metformin use low even among those with a body mass index of ≥35 kg/m²
THURSDAY, April 6, 2017 (HealthDay News) — For U.S. adults with prediabetes, the prevalence of metformin use is 0.7 percent, according to a study published online April 3 in Diabetes Care.
Eva Tseng, M.D., from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, and colleagues estimated the age-adjusted prevalence of metformin use among individuals with prediabetes and examined characteristics associated with metformin use using data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2005 to 2012.
The researchers found that 7,652 of 22,174 adults had prediabetes. Among those with prediabetes, the age-adjusted prevalence of metformin use was 0.7 percent. Metformin use correlated with elevated body mass index (BMI) (35.1 versus 29.6 kg/m²) and with higher glucose (fasting glucose, 114 versus 105 mg/dL; two-hour post-stimulated glucose, 155 versus 128 mg/dL; and hemoglobin A1c, 6.0 versus 5.6 percent). Even among those with a BMI ≥35 kg/m², metformin use was low. There was no variation in metformin use by race, poverty-to-income ratio, or education.
“Metformin use was <1 percent among U.S. adults with prediabetes and only slightly more common among those with additional risk factors for diabetes” the authors write.
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