The Summary
- Obesity dipped barely in U.S. adults final 12 months for the primary time in additional than a decade, a research discovered.
- The researchers prompt that is likely to be due, partially, to the rise of weight reduction medication like Ozempic.
- However, different drugs or elements — resembling the consequences of the Covid pandemic — may even have performed a job.
Obesity dipped barely in U.S. adults final 12 months, analysis discovered — the primary time in additional than a decade that the nation has seen a downward development. That is likely to be due, partially, to the current rise of blockbuster weight loss drugs like Ozempic, in response to the research authors.
The findings, revealed Friday within the journal JAMA Health Forum, confirmed essentially the most important lower within the South, significantly amongst girls and adults ages 66 to 75.
The research checked out body mass index measurements of greater than 16.7 million adults throughout totally different geographic areas, age teams, sexes, races and ethnicities from 2013 by means of 2023. BMI measurements, that are a typical however restricted approach to estimate weight problems as a ratio of weight to top, had been gathered from digital well being information.
The researchers discovered that the prevalence of grownup weight problems within the U.S. decreased from 46% in 2022 to 45.6% in 2023. (Those are barely larger shares than the estimate from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which says round 40% of U.S. adults had weight problems from 2021 to 2023.)
The outcomes weren’t uniform throughout demographics and geographic areas, stated Benjamin Rader, a computational epidemiologist at Boston Children’s Hospital and an creator of the research.
“In the usoverall, weight problems was on the decline, led by the South, however in some areas that wasn’t the case,” he stated. “We additionally noticed massive drops amongst Black Americans, however we noticed will increase in weight problems amongst Asian Americans.”
Rader stated the decline within the South is notable as a result of that area additionally had the very best noticed per-capita uptake of weight reduction medication, primarily based on the researchers’ evaluation of insurance coverage claims. But he acknowledged that any doable connection there wants additional investigation.
The research authors additionally famous that the South skilled a disproportionately excessive variety of Covid-19 deaths amongst folks with weight problems, which may have affected the general knowledge.
Dr. Michael Weintraub, an endocrinologist and medical assistant professor on the New York University Grossman School of Medicine, stated the outcomes had been in step with recent data from the CDC that confirmed a slight downtick in weight problems prevalence amongst adults within the U.S. within the 2021-2023 interval, as in contrast with the years from 2017 to 2020 (although extreme weight problems rose over that point).
“I discover the information thrilling, and with the prospect that we might be on the precipice of a shift on this weight problems epidemic,” stated Weintraub, who was not concerned within the new research. “But I hesitate to name this down-trending worth in 2023 but a development.”
Even if weight reduction drugs had been a significant factor within the decline in weight problems, specialists stated extra analysis is required over longer intervals of time to judge the brand new medication’ true impression.
“We know these drugs are extraordinarily efficient, however we’d like a pair extra years to see if that is really a development or if it’s just a bit blip and issues will return to the place they had been, or if it would get even worse,” stated Dr. Tannaz Moin, an endocrinologist and affiliate professor of medication on the University of California, Los Angeles, who was not concerned with the research.
Moin additionally identified that the brand new research solely analyzed the allotting of GLP-1 weight loss drugs — a class that features Ozempic and Mounjaro. This kind of treatment is used to deal with diabetes and weight problems by serving to to scale back an individual’s urge for food and meals consumption. The medication mimic a hormone that may make somebody really feel full.
But GLP-1 medication are solely a subset of prescriptions to deal with weight problems, Moin stated, so a extra complete research of various drugs may higher seize any modifications in developments. Weight loss medication are additionally expensive, which can skew knowledge on who is able to access the treatment.
Plus, the research’s use of insurance coverage claims knowledge means folks with out protection or who bought weight reduction medication out of pocket had been possible not captured within the outcomes.
Moin stated she was stunned by the drop in BMI noticed in older folks.
“That isn’t the group that I might essentially suppose to be the very best customers of GLP-1 medication as a result of many can be within the Medicare age vary,” she stated, including that weight reduction medication could be troublesome to acquire for these on Medicare. The Biden administration not too long ago proposed a rule that would require Medicare and Medicaid to cover weight reduction drugs for folks looking for weight problems therapy.
Weintraub, in the meantime, cautioned that noticed dips don’t at all times point out a long-term decline.
“We’ve been fooled by fluctuations in weight problems prevalence prior to now,” he stated. “We obtained enthusiastic about down-trending pediatric weight problems charges within the early 2000s by the CDC, just for them to shoot up within the subsequent years.”
