SYSTEMATIC REVIEW article
Front. Endocrinol.
Sec. Clinical Diabetes
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fendo.2025.1550938
This article is part of the Research TopicTechnologies for Diabetes, volume IIIView all 4 articles
The effects of GLP-1 agonists on HbA1c, and insulin dose among patients with type 1 diabetes
Provisionally accepted
- University of Tabuk, Tabuk, Saudi Arabia
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Type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) is a common chronic disease, and there is a rising trend globally, insulin is the mainstay therapy. Despite improvements in insulin delivery and monitoring, a significant percentage of patients still fail to reach glycemic targets. There is an increasing interest in using glucagon-like receptor agonists as adjuvant therapy. A high risk of bias limits meta-analysis on the effectiveness of GLP-1 agonists. This meta-analysis aimed to assess the effects of GLP-1 agonists on HbA1c and total daily insulin dose in T1DM. We searched PubMed, Cochrane Library, and Google Scholar for articles investigating the effects of GLP-1 agonists on the HbA1c, and total daily insulin dose without limitation to the publication date. The keywords used were GLP-1 agonists, liraglutide, albiglutide, exenatide, glycated hemoglobin, HbA1c, insulin dose, and glycemic control. Out of the 713 articles retrieved,, 21 full texts were screened, and 10 trials were included in the meta-analysis. GLP-1 agonists are more effective than placebo in HbA1c reduction, Z=5.27, SMD, 0.23, 95% CI, 0.14-0.32, with 1.2mg, and 1.8mg more effective than 0.6mg, SMD, -0.87, 95% CI, -1.60-0.13, and SMD, -0.79, 95% CI, -1.18-0.41respectively. GLP-1 agonists reduce total daily insulin dose SMD, 2.21, 95% CI, 0.43-3.98 with no significant differences between different doses. GLP-1 agonists were effective in HbA1c and total daily insulin reduction among patients with T1DM. Liraglutide 1.2 mg may be more beneficial, further randomized trials focusing on different doses of GLP-1 agonists, and hypoglycemia risk are recommended.
Keywords: glucagon-like peptide agonists, type 1 diabetes, HbA1c, Insulin dose, insulin reduction
Received: 14 Jan 2025; Accepted: 18 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Alhowiti and Mirghani. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Amirah Alhowiti, University of Tabuk, Tabuk, Saudi Arabia
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