A new economic study suggests that GLP-1 drugs, used to treat diabetes and obesity, could lead to cost savings for workers and employers by reducing long-term sick leave.
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CBS News reports that GLP-1 drugs are known to also improve patients’ health by reducing the risk of major adverse cardiovascular events, including heart attacks and strokes, research shows.
“Those events, we’d imagine, would lead to long-term absences from work,” Jonathan Zhang, one of the study’s co-authors and a professor at Duke University, told CBS News. “So you can imagine the savings of not having those absences.”
Patients who used these medications took 17% less long-term sick leave compared to those who didn’t use them.
The reduction in worker absences could result in savings of up to 1.5% of an individual’s salary, or roughly $866 on average.
While the study, which was published this month by the National Bureau of Economic Research, was conducted in Denmark, the findings may have implications for the U.S. labor market, where generous sick leave policies are lacking.
Researchers believe that reducing long-term sick leave could lead to increased productivity and potential career advancement for employees.
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