Long-term Metformin Use and Vitamin B12 Deficiency in the Diabetes Prevention Program Outcomes Study.

What Was Tested

The paper reports a study of Cyanocobalamin (Vitamin B12), published as a randomized controlled trial.

Vitamin B12 deficiency may occur with metformin treatment, but few studies have assessed risk with long-term use.

Who Took Part

The age groups tagged for this paper are adults, middle-aged adults and older adults, both men and women.

DPP eligibility criteria were: elevated fasting glucose, impaired glucose tolerance, and overweight/obesity.

The analytic population comprised participants with available stored samples.

How the Study Was Run

The design is described as randomized, open-label and placebo-controlled.

Because people in this Cyanocobalamin (Vitamin B12) study were split into groups at random, differences between the groups are less likely to reflect who happened to join each one.

Nothing was hidden in this open-label Cyanocobalamin (Vitamin B12) study: the participants and staff both knew the treatment.

A placebo (an inactive look-alike) gave the Cyanocobalamin (Vitamin B12) group a baseline to be compared against.

Secondary analysis from the DPP/DPPOS.

Twenty-seven study centers in the United States.

B12 levels were assessed at 5 years (n = 857, n = 858) and 13 years (n = 756, n = 764) in PLA and MET, respectively.

What Was Measured

Vitamin B12 deficiency may occur with metformin treatment, but few studies have assessed risk with long-term use.

The subject headings attached to it are Anemia, Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2, Homocysteine, Hypoglycemic Agents, Metformin, Vitamin B 12 and Vitamin B 12 Deficiency.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, open-label and placebo-controlled study of Cyanocobalamin (Vitamin B12).

Results are reported in around 8 sentences of the abstract; we leave them to the paper itself rather than summarise them.

The publication is from 2016 (The Journal of clinical endocrinology and metabolism), a journal based in United States.

More context: the Cyanocobalamin (Vitamin B12) compound page, all human trials.