Patients with atrial fibrillation (AFib) who are treated with non‐vitamin K antagonist oral anticoagulants (NOACs) are less likely to develop diabetes than those treated with warfarin, according to an in-depth analysis out of Taiwan.
The study, published in full in Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism, included data from more than 10,000 adult patients with newly detected AFib. All patients received care from 2012 to 2016, and data was taken from Taiwan's National Health Insurance Research Database. The mean follow-up period was 2.4 years.
Overall, the authors found that patients treated with a NOAC were 20% less likely to go on to develop diabetes than patients treated with warfarin. The difference was even more pronounced when the patient was over the age of 65.
“NOACs should be considered the preferable anticoagulant treatment due to the lower risks of diabetes, especially for elderly patients,” Huei-Kai Huang, MD, of Hualien Tzu Chi Medical Center in Taiwan, said in a statement. “Modifications to treatment practices based on these insights could help improve the long-term prognoses of atrial fibrillation patients for whom oral anticoagulant treatment is needed.”
The research team was unable to separately confirm each diagnosis, they noted. Another potential limitation was one NOAC, edoxaban, could not be included in the analysis due to a limited availability.
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