Research review: a look at the latest clinical papers

In our new monthly round-up, we review the latest clinical research from high-impact medical journals and draw out the findings most relevant to primary care and community pharmacy. Cahal McQuillan reports.

Empagliflozin and type 2 diabetes

On 9 February 2026, BMJ Open Diabetes Research & Care published a paper that supports the broader use of empagliflozin in managing type 2 diabetes.

While previous randomised controlled trials had shown that empagliflozin significantly reduces mortality in people with both type 2 diabetes and established atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, its efficacy for those with type 2 diabetes alone was less clear.

Therefore, a team of researchers, led by David K Ryan at the University College London, set out to estimate the real-world treatment effects of this key anti-diabetes drug using deidentified UK primary care electronic health record data belonging to 62,503 people.

The authors found that ‘the mortality benefit of empagliflozin… is also observed in real-world settings, among a broader, more clinically relevant population of people with type 2 diabetes.’

Obesity increases infection risk

The Lancet published a multicohort study on the 9 February 2026, which suggests that approximately one in ten infection-related deaths worldwide might be attributable to obesity.

Analysing data from more than 540,000 individuals in the UK and Finland, the researchers looked at the relationship between obesity and almost 1,000 severe infectious diseases.

The researchers found that people with obesity – defined as a BMI of 30 or higher – had a 70% higher risk of hospitalisation or death from any infectious disease in the study compared with people with a BMI between 18.5 to 24.9, which was classified as a healthy weight. Furthermore, this risk steadily increased as body weight increased.

Early treatment can delay rheumatoid arthritis

On 20 January 2026, a new King’s College London study, which was published in The Lancet Rheumatolgy, found that treating people who are at high risk of rheumatoid arthritis with abatacept can delay the onset of the disease for several years.

Building on results from a previous 2024 trial, the new study reports outcomes from an extended follow-up period of between four and eight years for 143 individuals at risk of rheumatoid arthritis – making it one of the longest follow-up studies of its kind.

The researchers found that the benefits of just 12 months of abatacept therapy persisted well beyond the treatment period, with disease onset delayed by up to four years.

Aspirin use and cancer in older adults

A joint Australian-American study, published in JAMA Oncology on the 29 January 2026, found that low-dose aspirin was not associated with a reduced incidence of cancer among older adults, but that cancer mortality risk was significantly elevated.

Several previous studies, conducted largely in middle-aged adults, had reported that aspirin reduced cancer risk after 10 years, particularly colorectal cancer. Therefore, a group of researchers, led by Suzanne G Orchard from Monash University in Australia, set out to see if the same was true for older adults – aged 70 years or older.

After collecting and examining data from more than 19,000 participants who had been randomly allocated to receive either 100mg of aspirin daily or a matched ​placebo for a median of 4.7 years, they found no overall change in cancer incidence risk for older adults

However, they found that this treatment increased cancer-related mortality by 15%, as well risk of incident late-stage cancer. Consequently, they do not recommend low-dose aspirin treatment for this age group.

Vitamin D and cognitive decline

On 22 January 2026, BMJ Open published a study with findings that do not support vitamin D supplementation as a means of preventing or slowing cognitive decline in older adults.

Alongside its well-established benefits for bone health, vitamin D has been increasingly promoted as having links to cognitive function in recent years. However, the real-world evidence on the association between vitamin D supplementation and cognitive outcomes has been scarce and controversial.

Therefore, hoping to shed more light on the matter, a team of researchers from the Chinese University of Hong Kong conducted a prospective cohort study involving over 5,000 participants over 50 years old in the USA.

The researchers found that vitamin D supplementation was associated with accelerated cognitive decline in individuals who did not have a vitamin D deficiency at baseline. Therefore, the authors state that: ‘While healthcare providers should encourage adequate vitamin D intake from dietary sources and moderate sun exposure, caution should be taken when recommending such supplements to older adults without a clear indication for it.’