Obesity fell slightly among American adults in 2023, the first time in more than a decade that the country has seen a decline in this trend, according to a study that suggests this could be due, in part, to the recent increase in use famous weight loss drugs like Ozempic.
The findings, published Friday in the journal JAMA Health Forum, showed the most significant decline in the south of the country, especially among women and adults ages 66 to 75.
The study analyzed body mass index (BMI) measurements of more than 16.7 million adults from different geographic regions, age groups, sexes, races and ethnicities, from 2013 to 2023. BMI data, a standard but limited form to estimate obesity as a relationship between weight and height, were obtained from electronic health records.
The researchers found that the prevalence of obesity among adults in the United States decreased from 46% in 2022 to 45.6% in 2023 and those percentages are slightly higher than estimates by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which says that About 40% of American adults were obese from 2021 to 2023.
But the results were not uniform across demographic and geographic regions, explained Benjamin Rader, an epidemiologist at Boston Children’s Hospital and an author of the study.
“In the United States overall, obesity was on the decline, led by the South, but in some regions this was not the case,” he noted. “We also saw large declines among black Americans, but we saw increases in obesity among Asian Americans.”
Rader pointed out that the decline in the south of the country is notable because that region also saw the highest per capita consumption of weight loss medications, according to the researchers’ analysis of health insurance claims. However, he acknowledged that any possible relationship needs to be further investigated.
The study authors also noted that the South saw a disproportionately high number of COVID-19 deaths among people with obesity, which could have affected the overall data.
The results are consistent with recent CDC data, which showed a slight decline in the prevalence of obesity among adults in the United States in the period 2021-2023, compared to the years 2017-2020 (although severe obesity increased during that time), said Dr. Michael Weintraub, an endocrinologist and professor at New York University Grossman School of Medicine.
“I find this data exciting, and with the prospect that we could 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 these 2023 results a trend.”
Even if weight-loss drugs were an important factor in decreasing obesity, experts said more research is needed over longer periods of time to evaluate the true impact of these new treatments.
“We know these drugs are extremely effective, but we need a couple more years to see if this is a trend or if it’s just a blip, and things will go back to normal or get 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 noted that the new research only looked at the administration of GLP-1 weight loss drugs, a category that includes Ozempic and Mounjaro. This treatment is used to treat diabetes and obesity by reducing appetite and food intake by mimicking a hormone that makes a person feel full.
But GLP-1 drugs are only a subset of those prescribed for obesity, Moin said. A more comprehensive study of different treatments could better capture any changes in trends. Additionally, these drugs are expensive, which could alter the data on who can access treatment.
Additionally, the study used insurance claims data, meaning people without coverage, or who paid for the drugs, were likely not included in the results.
Moin was surprised by the decline in BMI observed in older people.
“That’s not the group that I would think the biggest users of GLP-1 are in, since many of them are in the Medicare age group,” he explained, adding that such treatments can be difficult for people to obtain. Medicare beneficiaries. Recently, the Joe Biden Administration proposed a rule that would force Medicare and Medicaid to cover their costs for people seeking to combat obesity.
Weintraub, for his part, warned that the observed declines do not always indicate a long-term decline.
“In the past we have been fooled by fluctuations in obesity prevalence,” he said. “The CDC got us excited about pediatric obesity rates trending downward in the early 2000s, only to have them skyrocket in the following years.”
