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Review
. 2018 Nov 26;13(11):e0207947.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0207947. eCollection 2018.

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

Margit Solymár  1 , Ivan Ivic  1 , László Pótó  2 , Péter Hegyi  1   3   4 , András Garami  1 , Petra Hartmann  5 , Erika Pétervári  1 , László Czopf  6 , Alizadeh Hussain  7 , Zoltán Gyöngyi  8 , Patrícia Sarlós  9 , Mária Simon  10 , Péter Mátrai  2 , Bálint Bérczi  8 , Márta Balaskó  1
Affiliations
Review

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

Margit Solymár et al. PLoS One. .

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<0.001). Both total cholesterol (-0.184 mmol/L, p<0.001) and LDL cholesterol levels (-0.182 mmol/L, p<0.001) decreased upon metformin-treatment.

Conclusions: Our meta-analysis of RCTs showed a small reduction of body weight together with slight improvement of the blood lipid profile in patients over 60 years. With regard to the risk of unintentional weight loss, metformin seems to be a safe agent in the population of over 60 years. Our results also suggest that metformin treatment may reduce the risk of major coronary events (-4-5%) and all-cause mortality (-2%) in elderly diabetic populations.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. PRISMA flow diagram detailing process of study selection for the meta-analysis.
Fig 2
Fig 2. Summary assessment of risk of bias of the included studies.
Fig 3
Fig 3. Forest plot analysis of body weight (BW) in participants treated with metformin compared with placebo.
Fig 4
Fig 4. Summary data of outcome parameters.
Fig 5
Fig 5. Forest plot analysis of total cholesterol in participants treated with metformin compared with placebo.
Fig 6
Fig 6. Forest plot analysis of LDL cholesterol in participants treated with metformin compared with placebo.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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