Now, Cleveland Clinic researchers may have figured out which patients have the best odds of success. Women who take Wegovy to treat obesity have the greatest likelihood of achieving 10% or more weight loss in a year, according to a study published Friday in JAMA Network Open .
“We found that long-term weight reduction varied significantly based on the medication’s active agent, treatment indication, dosage and persistence with the medication,” said Dr. Hamlet Gasoyan, lead study author and a researcher with Cleveland Clinic’s Center for Value-Based Care Research .
The researchers only studied two types of drugs that mimic the GLP-1 hormone to make people feel fuller for longer — semaglutide and liraglutide .
Semaglutide is sold as Ozempic to treat Type 2 diabetes and as Wegovy for obesity.
The Cleveland Clinic study included data from about 3,400 obese adults who received injectable semaglutide or liraglutide between 2015 and 2022.
Nearly 43% of the participants were prescribed liraglutide for Type 2 diabetes, 39.6% were taking semaglutide for diabetes, 11.1% were given semaglutide for obesity and 6.7% liraglutide for obesity.
A higher dose of either drug meant a 6.6% weight drop versus 3.5% for a lower dose.
Those taking the drug for obesity experienced a 5.9% decrease in weight versus 3.2% for diabetes treatment.
People who took the drug for at least one year experienced more weight loss (5.5%) than people who took it for 90 to 275 days (2.8%) and less than 90 days (1.8%).
Among yearlong patients, 61% of semaglutide users treated for obesity achieved weight loss of 10% or more.
That mark was reached by 28.6% of those taking liraglutide for obesity, 23.1% of semaglutide diabetics and 12.3% of liraglutide diabetics.
Gasoyan hopes these findings help patients and providers set realistic weight loss goals.
“Having real-world data could help manage expectations regarding weight reduction with GLP-1 RA medications and reinforce that persistence is key to achieve meaningful results,” Gasoyan said.
Dr. David Pechman , director of bariatric surgery at South Shore University Hospital, said this research can help guide decision-making.
“Many clinicians are early in their learning curve with prescribing these medications and any clinical studies are continuing to offer insights into their risks and benefits,” Pechman, who was not involved in the research, told The Post. “I look forward to further study and the inclusion of tirzepatide, which is also increasingly being prescribed.”
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