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Longevity supplements › Metformin and Aging › Studies

Population study: followed a group

Study of 4038 people with diabetes and kidney disease: metformin went with lower death

Charytan and colleagues · Diabetes, obesity & metabolism · 2019

Original title: Metformin use and cardiovascular events in patients with type 2 diabetes and chronic kidney disease.

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What the study found

Points to benefit

Metformin use was linked to lower all-cause death (HR, 0.49; 95% CI, 0.36-0.69), heart death (HR, 0.49; 95% CI, 0.32-0.74) and heart events (HR, 0.67, 95% CI, 0.51-0.88). Two cases of lactic acidosis were seen.

The study at a glance

Type of study
Population study: followed a group
Who or what was studied
4,038 people · People with type 2 diabetes and chronic kidney disease in a darbepoetin trial (591 metformin users, 3447 non-users)
What was tested
Metformin users vs non-users at the start of the trial, followed for death and heart events
What it measured
The question itself: aging, frailty and death in people without diabetes
Who has a stake
No disclosure in PubMed
No disclosure in PubMed.
Journal
Diabetes, obesity & metabolism, 2019
Source
PubMed record 30672083. This page is based on the abstract only.

How much this study counts

  • –Shows a link, not a cause: people chose their own habits, and other differences between them may explain the result.
  • ✓Followed people over time, so habits were recorded before the outcome happened.
  • •4,038 people.
  • ✓Measured the question itself: aging, frailty and death in people without diabetes.
  • •The PubMed record has no conflict-of-interest statement.
  • •Summarized from the PubMed abstract only. The full paper may hold details the abstract leaves out.

✓ Strength– Limit• Note

These points come from fixed rules about the type of study, its size and length, what it measured, and who has a stake. Every study on Digestery gets the same rules.

Where this study sits

Each dot is one on-topic paper on this question. Steps near the top answer the question more directly.

↑ Stronger evidence

  1. Trials in people: aging and age-related disease

    1

    1 benefit

  2. Trials in people: other measures

    3

    2 no difference, 1 harm

  3. Trials in people: lab tests or safety

    6

    2 benefit, 2 mixed, 2 no difference

  4. Population studies

    8

    6 benefit, 2 no difference

    ↑ This study is the ringed dot

  5. Blood levels and genes

    0

    None among the papers we read.

  6. Animals

    3

    2 benefit, 1 harm

↓ Weaker evidence

  • Points to benefit
  • Mixed
  • No difference
  • No direction
  • Points to harm

How it fits with the other research

The short answer to “Does metformin slow aging in people without diabetes?”

Not shown in people without diabetes.

Confidence: low. Based on 26 on-topic papers.

Read the full answer

Of the other 7 papers on the same step: 5 benefit, 2 no difference. This one found benefit. It agrees with most of them.

Other papers on the same step

See all 26 studies on this question

How this page was made

Label

First read of the abstract
Claude Sonnet
Independent second read
Claude Haiku
Differences settled
The two reads agreed on every checked field. Claude Opus 5.5.
Headline
Claude Sonnet, from the checked study record. A script checked its numbers and wording.
Numbers
Checked against the abstract by a script
“How much this study counts”
Fixed rules, the same for every study
Source check by a person
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