TOPLINE:
Bariatric metabolic surgery (BMS) offers a survival advantage over glucagon-like peptide 1 receptor agonists (GLP-1 RAs) in adults with obesity and diabetes for 10 years or less, which may be explained by greater weight loss with surgery, new research shows.
METHODOLOGY:
- There is limited evidence regarding the relative effectiveness of BMS and GLP-1 RAs in reducing mortality and major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE).
- This observational, retrospective cohort study analyzed the electronic medical records of Clalit Health Services, Israel’s largest healthcare organization.
- Researchers included patients aged 24 years or older who had diabetes and obesity but no prior cardiovascular disease and who either underwent BMS or received a GLP-1 RA.
- The primary outcome was all-cause mortality, assessed by multivariate Cox proportional hazards regression models. The secondary outcome was nonfatal MACE, assessed by multivariate competing risk models.
TAKEAWAY:
- Researchers included 3035 matched pairs of patients (total, 6070; mean age, 51 years; 65% women), who were followed for a median of 6.8 years.
- Among patients with diabetes for 10 years or less, those who underwent BMS had a 62% lower risk for mortality than those treated with a GLP-1 RA (hazard ratio [HR], 0.38).
- The survival advantage associated with BMS vs GLP-1 RA may be explained by the greater relative decrease in body mass index in the surgery group (–31.4% vs –12.8%, respectively).
- Among patients with diabetes for more than 10 years, no survival advantage was observed for BMS over GLP-1 RA (HR, 0.65), which may be explained by the adverse effects of prolonged diabetes duration masking the benefit associated with weight loss.
- The risk for nonfatal MACE did not differ significantly between the treatment groups in both diabetes duration categories.
IN PRACTICE:
“This study suggests that BMS was associated with greater reduced mortality compared with GLP-1 RAs among individuals with a diabetes duration of 10 years or less, mediated via greater weight loss,” the authors wrote.
SOURCE:
The study, with first author Dror Dicker, MD, Hasharon Hospital, Rabin Medical Center, Petah Tikva, Israel, was published online in JAMA Network Open.
LIMITATIONS:
The observational design may have introduced residual confounding despite matching and multivariable adjustment. The analyses did not account for the types of BMS or GLP-1 RAs or the level of adherence to GLP-1 RA treatment. Information regarding cause of death was unavailable.
DISCLOSURES:
The study was funded by the Israel Science Foundation. Dicker reported financial relationships with Novo Nordisk, Eli Lilly, and Boehringer Ingelheim.
A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.