Obesity declined among U.S. adults last year for the first time in a decade

Obesity declined slightly among U.S. adults last year for the first time in more than a decade, a study shows. Researchers have suggested that this may be due, in part, to the rise of weight-loss drugs like Ozempic. However, other medications or factors like the effects of the Covid pandemic could also have played a role.

Obesity declined slightly among U.S. adults last year, according to a study that found for the first time in more than a decade that the country is seeing a downward trend. This could be due, in part, to the recent rise in blockbuster weight-loss drugs like Ozempic, according to the study authors.

The results, published Friday in the journal JAMA Health Forum, showed the most significant decline in the South, particularly among women and adults aged 66 to 75.

The study examined body mass index measurements of more than 16.7 million adults across geographic regions, age groups, genders, races and ethnicities from 2013 to 2023. BMI measurements , which provide a standard but limited way of estimating obesity as a ratio to weight. in height, were collected from electronic health records.

Researchers found that the prevalence of obesity among adults in the United States declined from 46% in 2022 to 45.6% in 2023. (These are slightly higher proportions than the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which indicates that approximately 40% of American adults had obesity from 2021 to 2023.)

The results were not uniform across demographics and geographic regions, said Benjamin Rader, a computational epidemiologist at Boston Childrens Hospital and an author of the study.

In the United States overall, obesity is declining, primarily in the South, but not in some regions, he said. We also saw large declines among Black Americans, but we saw an increase in obesity among Asian Americans.

Rader said the decline in the South is notable because that region also has the highest consumption of weight-loss drugs per capita, based on the researchers' analysis of insurance claims. But he acknowledged that any possible link would require further investigation.

The study authors also noted that the South saw a disproportionately high number of Covid-19 deaths among obese people, which could have affected the overall data.

Dr. Michael Weintraub, an endocrinologist and clinical assistant professor at New York University's Grossman School of Medicine, said the findings were consistent with recent CDC data that showed a slight decline in the prevalence of obesity among adults in the United States in 2021. 2023, compared to the years 2017 to 2020 (even though severe obesity increased during this period).

I find the data exciting, and with the prospect that we might be on the verge of a change in this obesity epidemic, said Weintraub, who was not involved in the new study. But I hesitate to call this bearish value in 2023 a trend.

Although weight loss drugs were a major factor in the decline in obesity, experts say additional research over longer periods of time is needed to assess the true impact of these new drugs.

“We know that these drugs are extremely effective, but it will take us a few more years to see if this is truly a trend or if it's just a small incident and things will return to where they were. or if the situation will get even worse,” said Dr. Tannaz Moin, an endocrinologist and associate professor of medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles, who was not involved in the study.

Moin also emphasized that the new study only analyzed the distribution of GLP-1 weight-loss drugs, a category that includes Ozempic and Mounjaro. This type of medication is used to treat diabetes and obesity by helping to reduce a person's appetite and food intake. The medications mimic a hormone that can cause a feeling of fullness.

But GLP-1 drugs make up only a subset of prescriptions to treat obesity, Moin said, so a more comprehensive study of different drugs could better capture any changing trends. Weight-loss drugs are also expensive, which can skew data on who can access treatment.

Additionally, the study's use of insurance claims data means that people without coverage or who purchased weight-loss drugs out of pocket were likely not counted in the findings.

Moin said she was surprised by the decline in BMI observed among older people.

This is not the group I necessarily think would be the highest users of GLP-1 drugs, as many would be in the Medicare age range, she said, adding that weight-loss drugs can be difficult to get for people with Medicare. The Biden administration recently proposed a rule that would require Medicare and Medicaid to cover weight-loss drugs for people seeking treatment for obesity.

Weintraub, meanwhile, cautioned that observed declines do not always indicate a long-term decline.

We have been misled by fluctuations in obesity prevalence in the past, he said. We were excited by the CDC's downward trend in pediatric obesity rates in the early 2000s, only to see them increase significantly in subsequent years.

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