Semaglutide linked to significant weight loss in adults with obesity in real-world study
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Key takeaways:
- Of the cohort, 65% lost at least 10% of their body weight and 41% lost at least 15% of their body weight.
- Half of patients reported at least one adverse event, with nausea the most common.
Adults with overweight or obesity receiving semaglutide lost 13.4% of their body weight at 1 year, according to findings from a real-world study presented at the European Congress on Obesity.
As Healio previously reported, an earlier study found adults receiving semaglutide (Wegovy, Novo Nordisk) in a real-world setting lost 10.9% of their body weight at 6 months. In new real-world data that examined adults for a longer follow-up period, weight loss from semaglutide continued to increase up to 1 year, with 65% of adults losing at least 10% of their body weight.
“In a first multicentered real-world study assessing the weight loss and metabolic outcomes of semaglutide, we demonstrated effective weight-loss outcomes and associated comorbidity profile improvement in patients with overweight or obesity,” Wissam Ghusn, MD, a postdoctoral research fellow in the Precision Medicine for Obesity Program at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, told Healio. “We showed similar weight-loss outcomes in our real-world study without the stringent conditions of randomized clinical trials.”
Ghusn and colleagues conducted a retrospective study of 305 adults with overweight or obesity who received semaglutide for weight loss (73% women; mean age, 49 years; 92% white). Total body weight loss from drug initiation to 1 year was collected. The researchers analyzed blood pressure, HbA1c, fasting glucose and lipid changes from drug initiation to 1 year. The percentage of adults who lost at least 5%, 10%, 15% and 20% of their total body weight was calculated. Adverse events during the first year of therapy were collected.
Of the cohort, 26% had type 2 diabetes at baseline, 48% had dyslipidemia and 47% had hypertension. There were 110 adults who had body weight change data available at 1-year follow-up. Of the cohort with data available, the mean total body weight loss was 13.4% (P < .001). Adults with type 2 diabetes lost less weight than adults without type 2 diabetes (10.1% vs. 16.7%; P = .001). Of the cohort, 82% lost at least 5% of their body weight, 65% lost at least 10% of their body weight, 41% lost at least 15% of their body weight and 21% lost 20% or more of their body weight.
Participants had improvements in several metabolic and cardiovascular parameters at 1 year, including lower systolic BP (mean change, –6.8 mm Hg; P < .001), diastolic BP (mean change, –2.5 mm Hg; P < .001), total cholesterol (mean change, –10.2 mg/dL; P < .001) and triglycerides (mean change, –17.6 mg/dL; P = .005).
Of the cohort, 50.5% reported at least one adverse event related to semaglutide use. The most common adverse event was nausea, which was reported by 38% of participants.
“Similar to the randomized clinical trial, we show no major side effects of semaglutide,” Ghusn said. “We also demonstrated similar improvement of most metabolic data, which would reflect a CVD risk improvement.”
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Ghusn W, et al. PO4.099. Presented at: European Congress on Obesity; May 17-20, 2023; Dublin.
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