Ozempic Improves Health But Not Life, Study Finds — SkimNews
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- University of Chicago economists Robert Kaestner and Cuiping Schiman published an NBER working paper analyzing more than 10 years of Medical Expenditure Panel Survey data on adults with diabetes from 2012 to 2023.
- Kaestner and Schiman tracked the same individuals over time rather than just comparing users to non-users, finding that initial gaps in employment and marriage between the groups mostly disappeared within-person after starting treatment.
- The study found little evidence that GLP-1 use led to meaningful changes in depression symptoms, psychological distress, self-rated health, employment, or marital status over one-year and two-year windows.
- Kaestner said the measures used — employment, marriage, standard mental health indicators — may not capture subtler effects like self-esteem or relationship quality that could still be occurring.
- The researchers stressed the findings do not undermine the medical value of GLP-1 drugs, noting that improved glycemic control, weight loss, and cardiovascular benefits remain well established in clinical research.
- The study comes as insurers and government programs weigh whether to broaden GLP-1 access, a debate where social and economic gains beyond medical benefits could factor into coverage decisions.
Why it matters: With insurers and government programs weighing broader GLP-1 coverage, this study argues the case for wider access should rest on documented medical outcomes — blood sugar, weight, cardiovascular risk — rather than expected spillovers into mental health, employment, or relationships, which the within-person analysis did not detect.
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