Risk of Gastrointestinal Adverse Events Associated With Glucagon-Like Peptide-1 Receptor Agonists for Weight Loss
- Design
- Retrospective cohort · 4757 participants · Hard outcome
- Match to healthy normal-weight adults aged 55–75
- Different populationNon-diabetic weight-loss users in US claims data; BMI not available. Closest harm data to a non-diabetic population.
- Could weight loss explain it?
- UnknownHarm outcome; not applicable.
- Study tier
- Study tier 3Observational claims analysis with few events; relative effects are imprecise but directionally consistent with pharmacology and later cohorts.
- Assessment
- Version 2 · curated · Sep 13, 2026
Study facts come from the paper. Population match, weight-loss explanation and study tier are our judgments, made against the reference group of healthy normal-weight adults aged 55–75.
Using US insurance claims from people without diabetes using GLP-1 drugs for weight loss, this research letter reported higher rates of pancreatitis, bowel obstruction and gastroparesis than with bupropion-naltrexone. Event counts were small and the confidence intervals very wide.
01Findings
What the study reported
- Drugs
- Semaglutide, Liraglutide
- Comparator
- bupropion-naltrexone
- Primary outcome
- Pancreatitis, gastroparesis, bowel obstruction, biliary disease (claims data, weight-loss indication)
- Effect
- Pancreatitis HR 9.09; bowel obstruction HR 4.22; gastroparesis HR 3.67; biliary disease HR 1.50 (NS) (from full text; verify)
- 95% confidence interval
- pancreatitis 1.25-66.00; obstruction 1.02-17.40; gastroparesis 1.15-11.90 (full text)
- Follow-up
- Not stated
- Adverse events
- See effect estimates.
- Limitations
- No abstract in PubMed (JAMA research letter); effect estimates transcribed from the article and should be verified against the source.
Who was studied
- Obesity status
- prescribed for weight loss (non-diabetic users)
- Diabetes status
- excluded (diabetes users removed)
Study quality details
- Study design
- Unknown
- Sample size
- not extracted
- Randomization
- no
- Blinding
- not stated
- Comparator
- not stated
- Follow up duration
- not stated
- Outcome type
- unknown
- Replication
- not assessed (auto)
- Consistency with other evidence
- not assessed (auto)
- Population applicability
- UNKNOWN
- Statistical precision
- very wide confidence intervals; few events
- Risk of bias
- claims-based ascertainment; active comparator reduces but does not remove confounding
- Funding conflicts
- unclear
- Peer review status
- yes
02Funding
Funding and conflicts
- Funding
- Not stated in PubMed metadata (research letter)
- Industry funded
- Unclear
- Manufacturer
- None identified
- Sponsor role
- Academic analysis.
- Author conflicts
- Not available in metadata.
- Independent replication
- partly (VA atlas PMID 39833406 reports pancreatitis signal)
Funding is shown on every study and never used to score it.
03Claims
Claims this study bears on
- GLP-1 receptor agonists cause serious gastrointestinal and biliary adverse events.Supports
Claims cohort: elevated pancreatitis, bowel obstruction, gastroparesis vs bupropion-naltrexone (wide CIs).
04Source
The source, as retrieved
Abstract
No abstract retrieved.
Where this record came from
| Source | Retrieved | Identifier |
|---|---|---|
| pubmed | Sep 13, 2026 | 37796527 first ingestion |