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A recent study in JAMA Network Ophthalmology found that older adults with diabetes who were treated with glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1 RAs) had a significantly higher risk of developing neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD). The retrospective study, conducted from January 2020 to November 2023, followed patients for up to 3 years. It included individuals aged 66 years or older (46.6% female) who had a diagnosis of diabetes and at least 12 months of follow-up care after their initial diagnosis. Among 46,334 patients exposed to GLP-1 RAs, the risk of developing nAMD was more than twice as high as in the matched group of 92,668 unexposed individuals studied. Specifically, those who used GLP-1 RAs for at least 6 months had an adjusted hazard ratio of 2.21 (95% confidence interval 1.65–2.96) for developing nAMD compared to non-users, indicating a substantial increase in risk for GLP-1 RA users.
The patient’s view: AMD can cause vision loss, and therefore, it directly affects quality of life. In 2019, an estimated 19.8 million Americans aged 40 and older were living with AMD—1.4 million with vision-threatening cases, and 18.3 million with non-vision threatening cases. However, nAMD (also called “wet AMD”) is a subset of AMD, which is less common but more severe. The risk of nAMD is yet another reason for caution as more patients are prescribed GLP-1 RA drugs for diabetes and weight loss.
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