Metformin induces significant reduction of body weight, total cholesterol and LDL levels in the elderly – A meta-analysis

Margit Solymár, Ivan Ivic, László Pótó, Péter Hegyi, András Garami, Petra Hartmann, Erika Pétervári, László Czopf, Alizadeh Hussain, Zoltán Gyöngyi, Patrícia Sarlós, Mária Simon, Péter Mátrai, Bálint Bérczi and Márta Balaskó

PLOS ONE, 2018, vol. 13, issue 11, 1-13

Abstract: Background: Metformin is the first-choice drug for patients with Type 2 diabetes, and this therapy is characterized by being weight neutral. However, in the elderly an additional unintentional weight loss could be considered as an adverse effect of the treatment. Objectives: We aimed to perform a meta-analysis of placebo-controlled studies investigating the body weight changes upon metformin treatment in participants older than 60 years. Materials and methods: PubMed, EMBASE and the Cochrane Library were searched. We included at least 12 week-long studies with placebo control where the mean age of the metformin-treated patients was 60 years or older and the body weight changes of the patients were reported. We registered our protocol on PROSPERO (CRD42017055287). Results: From the 971 articles identified by the search, 6 randomized placebo-controlled studies (RCTs) were included in the meta-analysis (n = 1541 participants). A raw difference of -2.23 kg (95% CI: -2.84 –-1.62 kg) body weight change was detected in the metformin-treated groups as compared with that of the placebo groups (p

Date: 2018
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:plo:pone00:0207947

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0207947

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