Antihypertensive Drugs and Diabetic Retinopathy in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate the association between the development of sight-threatening diabetic retinopathy (STDR) and antihypertensive drugs (AHDs) use among type 2 diabetic patients with concomitant hypertension. Methods: Type 2 diabetic patients aged 20-100 years who had at least one prescription for AHDs between 2000 and 2011 were identified from the Longitudinal Health Insurance Database (LHID) 2005. The incidence rates of STDR were followed and Cox proportional hazard models were used to analyze the risk associated with AHDs. Results: Users of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEIs) and angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs) were associated with a significantly higher risk than users of calcium channel blockers (CCBs), independent of baseline characteristics. After adjusting for time-varying use of concomitant medications for propensity score-matched or -unmatched cohorts, the results showed that patients receiving ACEIs/ARBs and CCBs were associated with a significantly greater risk compared with β-blocker users. Conclusions: Our study did not support a superiority of ACEIs/ARBs and CCBs over β-blockers for lowering the progression of diabetic retinopathy.