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Population study: followed a group

Study of 4278 Scottish adults: stopping metformin in kidney disease went with lower survival

Lambourg and colleagues · American journal of kidney diseases : the official journal of the National Kidney Foundation · 2025

Original title: Stopping Versus Continuing Metformin in Patients With Advanced CKD: A Nationwide Scottish Target Trial Emulation Study.

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What the study found

Points to benefit

Stopping metformin was linked to lower 3-year survival (63.7% [95% CI, 60.9-66.6] vs 70.5% [95% CI, 68.0-73.0]; HR, 1.26 [95% CI, 1.10-1.44]). Heart events were similar (HR, 1.05 [95% CI, 0.88-1.26]).

The study at a glance

Type of study
Population study: followed a group
Who or what was studied
4,278 people · Scottish adults with type 2 diabetes on metformin who developed stage 4 kidney disease
What was tested
Stopping vs continuing metformin within 6 months of stage 4 kidney disease; death over 3 years
What it measured
The question itself: aging, frailty and death in people without diabetes
How long
156 weeks
Who has a stake
No disclosure in PubMed
No disclosure in PubMed.
Journal
American journal of kidney diseases : the official journal of the National Kidney Foundation, 2025
Source
PubMed record 39521399. 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.
  • •4,278 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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