EVALUATION OF THE MOST COMMONLY USED ANTI-DIABETIC DRUGS AT A HOSPITAL IN NORTHERN PART OF PENINSULAR MALAYSIA -

Purpose: This study was aimed to evaluate the glycaemic control achieved by patients receiving different treatment regimens for type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM), including monotherapy with an oral hypoglycaemic agent (OHA), multiple OHAs, OHAs with insulin, and insulin monotherapy. Methods: One thousand and fourteen patients attending an outpatient diabetes clinic at a hospital in the northern part of Malaysia were retrospectively followed. Data were collected on their demographic, clinical, and treatment characteristics over a period of three years. The data were analysed using SPSS software package version 15.0 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, U.S.A.). Results: Diabetes was more predominant among the Chinese, female, and patients aged 61 to 80 years. More than two-thirds of the study population had DM for one to five years. Hypertension and dyslipidaemia concurrently was found among 43% of the patients as comorbidity. There was a decreasing trend in the usage of OHA therapy over the 3-year duration of follow-up. We found that dual OHAs therapy was prescribed for more than half of the patients and the vast majority was receiving gliclazide plus metformin. Glycaemic control differed significantly between different anti-diabetic regimens in this study. Conclusions: There were differences in glycaemic control between different treatments modalities used for type 2 DM. This may be related to the severity and progression of the disease, which have strong relation with the disease duration as well as the high HbA1c level, making insulin usage unavoidable.