Therapeutic advances in chronic diseaseJul 20, 2019

Effects of glucagon-like peptide 1 drugs on other health problems in older adults with diabetes

GLP-1 Therapies Weekly Brief ↗PubMed ↗DOI ↗

Updated Apr 5, 2026

Abstract

Elderly patients with diabetes are at high risk of polypharmacy, which increases the likelihood of adverse drug events.

Polypharmacy is prevalent among elderly patients with diabetes due to multiple coexisting diseases and syndromes.
Cognitive and sensory deficits in these patients may hinder timely reporting of adverse drug events.
Glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1 RAs) may help reduce the number of medications needed for managing diabetes and its comorbidities.
GLP-1 RAs have multiple effects on conditions commonly associated with diabetes, such as hyperlipidemia, hypertension, and fatty liver.
Using GLP-1 RAs could potentially lower costs, decrease medication burden, and improve adherence among older patients.

Simplified

Elderly patients with diabetes are at high risk of polypharmacy because of multiple coexisting diseases and syndromes. Polypharmacy increases the risk of drug-drug and drug-disease interactions in these patients, who may already have age-related sensory and cognitive deficits; such deficits may delay timely communication of early symptoms of adverse drug events. Several glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1 RAs) have been approved for diabetes: liraglutide, exenatide, lixisenatide, dulagluatide, semaglutide, and albiglutide. Some are also approved for treatment of obesity. The current review of literature along with clinical case discussion provides evidence supporting GLP-1 RAs as diabetes medications for polypharmacy reduction in older diabetes patients because of their multiple pleiotropic effects on comorbidities (e.g. hyperlipidemia, hypertension, and fatty liver) and syndromes (e.g. osteoporosis and sleep apnea) that commonly co-occur with diabetes. Using one medication (in this case, GLP-1 RAs) to address multiple conditions may help reduce costs, medication burden, adverse drug events, and medication nonadherence.

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Conflict of interest statement: The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

PubMed

Effects of glucagon-like peptide 1 drugs on other health problems in older adults with diabetes

Abstract

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Competing interests

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Abstract

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Related papers

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