Background: The effects of sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 inhibitors (SGLT2is) and glucagon-like peptide 1 receptor agonists on major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) in type 2 diabetic subgroups defined by race, ethnicity, and region are unestablished.
Methods: We searched PubMed and Embase for related randomized controlled trials. We conducted random-effects meta-analysis, stratified by drug class, on MACE in various subgroups defined by 3 factors of interest (ie, race, ethnicity, and region) to estimate pooled hazard ratio (HR) and 95% confidence interval. Random-effects meta-regression was conducted to evaluate the differences between 2 drug classes.
Results: We included 11 randomized controlled trials for pooled analysis. Compared with placebo, SGLT2is and GLP-1 RAs significantly reduced the risk of MACE (HR ranged from 0.76 to 0.93) in most diabetic subgroups defined by 3 factors of interest. The 2 drug classes did not significantly reduced this risk in the Black race group (HR 0.92, 95% confidence interval 0.70-1.20). The effect of the 2 drug classes on MACE was not significantly different in all diabetic subgroups of interest (P-value for subgroup differences ranged from .101 to .971).
Conclusions: SGLT2is and glucagon-like peptide 1 receptor agonists can significantly reduce the risk of MACE in most type 2 diabetic subgroups defined by race, ethnicity, and region, whereas they fail to do it in Black individuals.