Adults with obesity and obstructive sleep apnea who took GLP-1 medications were about 40% less likely to develop acute respiratory failure within a year than similar patients who did not, according to research from the CHEST 2026 annual meeting reported by Managed Healthcare Executive on Oct. 17.
The analysis compared about 470,000 GLP-1 users with nearly 1.5 million nonusers. Acute respiratory failure occurred in 1.4% of GLP-1 users versus 2.3% of nonusers at one year, and in 3.5% versus 5.5% at five years, a 36% lower risk over the longer period.
