Abstract
Incretin-based therapies, glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1 RAs) and dipeptidyl peptidase-4 inhibitors (DPP-4i), have been hypothesized to exert beneficial effects on COVID-19 outcomes due to anti-inflammatory properties. In this population-based cohort study, we retrieved data from nationwide registries on all individuals diagnosed with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 infection up to 1 November 2020. For individuals with diabetes, we examined the impact of use of GLP-1 RAs (n = 370) and DPP-4i (n = 284) compared with sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 inhibitors (SGLT-2i) (n = 342) on risk of hospital admission and severe outcomes. Relative risks (RRs) were calculated after applying propensity score weighted methods to control for confounding. Current users of GLP-1 RAs had an adjusted RR of 0.89 (95% confidence interval 0.34-2.33), while users of DPP-4i had an adjusted RR of 2.42 (95% confidence interval 0.99-5.89) for 30-day mortality compared with SGLT-2i use. Further, use of GLP-1 RAs or DPP-4i compared with SGLT-2i was not associated with decreased risk of hospital admission. Thus, use of incretin-based therapies in individuals with diabetes and severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) was not associated with improved clinical outcomes.