The Utilization of Glucagon-like Peptide 1 Agonists and Risk of Following External Eye Diseases in Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus Individuals: A Population-Based Study

The glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) agonist showed anti-hyperglycemic and anti-inflammatory effects, which may retard the risk of external eye disease. The protective effect of GLP-1 agonist and dry eye disease (DED) was found, while the relationship between GLP-1 agonist and other corneal diseases was not clear. Herein, we aim to evaluate the association between the usage of GLP-1 agonists and the development of the following external eye disease in type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) patients. A retrospective cohort study using the National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD) of Taiwan was conducted. The T2DM patients were divided into those with GLP-1 treatment and those without GLP-1 treatment and matched with a 1:2 ratio. The main outcomes were the development of dry eye disease (DED), superficial keratitis, and infectious keratitis. The Cox proportional hazard regression was adopted to produce the adjusted hazard ratio (aHR) with a 95% confidence interval (CI) of external eye diseases between groups. There were 115, 54, and 11 episodes of DED, superficial keratitis, and infectious keratitis in the GLP-1 group. Another 280, 168, and 31 events of DED, superficial keratitis, and infectious keratitis were recorded in the control group. The GLP-1 group demonstrated a significantly lower incidence of DED (aHR: 0.853, 95% CI: 0.668–0.989, p = 0.0356) and superficial keratitis (aHR: 0.670, 95% CI: 0.475–0.945, p = 0.0107) compared to the control group. In the subgroup analyses, the correlation of GLP-1 agonist and DED development was more prominent in patients younger than 60 years old (p = 0.0018). In conclusion, the GLP-1 agonist treatments are significantly associated with a lower incidence of subsequent DED and superficial keratitis, while the relationship was not significant between GLP-1 agonist usage and infectious keratitis.