Prevalence of metformin-induced gastrointestinal problems

Abstract

Metformin is used as an anti-diabetic medicine among oral hypoglycemic drugs, which produces many gastrointestinal problems. This study aims to investigate the effect of metformin-induced gastrointestinal problems and its prevalence. The cross-sectional study design was adopted using a convenience sampling technique, at different Diabetic Centers of Lahore and Faisalabad, Pakistan from, June-2017 to November-2017. A total of 300 male and female patients participated in the study between 26 to 85 years and diagnosed with type- II diabetes. Data were directly collected from the patients and the prevalence of metformin-induced gastrointestinal intolerance was determined by the symptoms of the patients. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 21. Results showed a significant difference between gender and symptoms (p = 0.029). Moreover, gastrointestinal problems were found to be dose-related. A significant difference existed between patients taking 500 mg and those taking 850 mg of metformin (p = 0.006), patients who were taking 500 mg and those taking 1000 mg of metformin (p = 0.000) and patients on 850 mg with those taking 1000 mg of metformin (p = 0.022). The prevalence of metformin-induced gastrointestinal symptoms was 45.8%. Most commonly occurring symptoms were, constipation (41.35%) followed by dyspepsia (27.89%), abdominal pain (26.92%), bloating and heartburn (25%), indigestion (15.38%), anorexia (11.54%), diarrhea (6.58%), flatulence (7.69%), nausea (6.73%) and vomiting (2.88%). It was concluded that gastrointestinal intolerance was more in females as compared to males. The gastrointestinal problems increased with the increase in dose. The side effects were irrespective of the age and the most common gastrointestinal symptom was found to be constipation.