Post

New research · Endocrinology
BMJ (Clinical research ed.) · 23h
StudyBMJ (Clinical research ed.) · 2026

Risk of hair loss associated with glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists in adults with type 2 diabetes: target trial emulation.

Huilin Tang, Bingyu Zhang, Yiwen Lu … Yong Chen
Read paper
EndocrinologyStudy

GLP-1 receptor agonists linked to higher non-scarring hair loss risk in type 2 diabetes.

Risk of hair loss associated with glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists in adults with type 2 diabetes: target trial emulation.

Huilin Tang et al. · BMJ (Clinical research ed.) · 2026
Purpose

To examine the association between glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonists and the risk of incident alopecia (hair loss) in adults with type 2 diabetes, compared with sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 (SGLT-2) inhibitors and dipeptidyl peptidase-4 (DPP-4) inhibitors.

Methods

Electronic health records from Penn Medicine.

Results

GLP-1 agonists had a 72% greater risk of non-scarring hair loss than DPP-4 inhibitors

HR 1.37 (95% CI 1.08 to 1.73)
null = 11.081.73
CI excludes the null - significant
More results

This study included 12 004 GLP-1 receptor agonist initiators and 15 221 SGLT-2 inhibitor initiators in the GLP-1 receptor agonist versus SGLT-2 inhibitor comparison and 11 964 GLP-1 receptor agonist initiators and 11 238 DPP-4 inhibitor initiators in the GLP-1 receptor agonist versus DPP-4 inhibitor comparison.

More results

After stabilised inverse probability of treatment weighting adjustment, use of GLP-1 receptor agonists was associated with a higher risk of alopecia than use of SGLT-2 inhibitors (hazard ratio 1.37, 95% confidence interval 1.08 to 1.73) or DPP-4 inhibitors (1.68, 1.28 to 2.20).

“
Conclusion

Use of GLP-1 receptor agonists was associated with an increased risk of non-scarring alopecia in adults with type 2 diabetes. Although the absolute risk is low, awareness of this potential effect may help to inform treatment decisions.

Read paper
0 comments

No comments yet. Be the first.

Related papers

LatestFoundational
AI / Informatics
P_adj = 0.038
early pregnancy ANGPTL4 levels were higher in women who developed gestational diabetes
Systematic Review
OR 1.58
patients with thyroid cancer have higher odds of accidental parathyroid gland removal
Review
21.5 per 100 000 persons
This is the number of US people with confirmed slow stomach emptying
Cohort Study
55.9% vs. 68.1%
Diabetic patients had lower major molecular response at 12 months (55.9% vs 68.1%).
Cohort Study
OR 18.90
far higher odds of fatty-liver inflammation with scarring at the top blood-marker level
Review
30-37%
SGLT2 inhibitors lower the chance of heart failure hospital stays and heart-related deaths
Cohort Study
0.5 %
only 0.5% of blood sugar tests after birth found lasting high blood sugar
Cohort Study
HR 1.095
a higher triglyceride to HDL cholesterol ratio means a higher risk of new diabetes