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Weight-Loss Surgery Down 25% as Anti-Obesity Drug Use Soars

A recent study found that the use of anti-obesity medications such as Ozempic and Wegovy more than doubled from 2022 to 2023 among privately insured patients with obesity. During the same period, there was a 25.6% decrease in patients undergoing metabolic bariatric surgery to treat obesity. The study, published in JAMA Network Open, analyzed a national sample of medical insurance claims data from over 17 million privately insured adults. Researchers identified patients with a diagnosis of obesity without diabetes in 2022-2023 and found a sharp increase in the use of glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists, or GLP-1 RAs. GLP-1 RA use increased by 132.6% from the last six months of 2022 to the last six months of 2023. Meanwhile, the use of bariatric metabolic surgery decreased from 0.22 to 0.16 patients per 1,000 patients during the same period. The majority of patients with obesity, 94.7%, received neither form of treatment during the study period. Only 5% of patients received GLP-1 RAs, while 0.3% underwent surgery. Patients who underwent surgery tended to be more medically complex compared to those prescribed GLP-1 RAs. The study provides one of the first national estimates of the decline in utilization of bariatric metabolic surgery among privately insured patients corresponding to the rising use of GLP-1 RA drugs.
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