The Effect of Diabetes Medication on the Scores of the GNRI and CONUT Nutritional Indices: Cross-Sectional and Longitudinal Retrospective Studies

Abstract

Malnutrition implies a decline in the systemic status and organ function, which is closely related to sarcopenia, frailty, osteoporosis, and prognosis. Diabetes medications work in a multifaceted manner on various tissues, such as the pancreas, muscle, liver, and adipose tissue; these medications affect metabolism, which in turn affects nutritional status. This study aimed to determine the effect of diabetes medications on the scores of the Geriatric Nutrition Risk Index (GNRI) and Controlling Nutritional Status (CONUT) nutritional indices, both cross-sectionally and longitudinally. This cross-sectional study included 2146 individuals who were prescribed diabetes medications. Multivariate analysis showed that both GNRI and CONUT scores tended to be improved in patients using sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 inhibitors (SGLT2i), dipeptidyl peptidase 4 inhibitors (DPP4i), or biguanide (BG). Additionally, propensity score matching of nutrition-related laboratory values was performed to assess the variation in nutritional indices over time, which resulted in less deterioration of the GNRI in the SGLT2i and BG groups. In conclusion, this study suggests that SGLT2i and BG prevent the progression of malnutrition and may help in selecting drugs that consider the nutritional status of patients.