The study found that many patients who lose weight with GLP-1 stop treatment too early

Research indicates that many people taking GLP-1 for weight loss don’t follow the treatment regimen long enough to realize the specified results.

According to CNNan evaluation of medical health insurance claims released Tuesday found that the vast majority of people using Wegovy and other GLP-1 drugs – about 58% – discontinued treatment inside 12 weeks, which fell in need of a critical benchmark set by skilled organizations for re-evaluation clinical effectiveness of treatment.

Patients start with a low dose of medication and may progressively increase the dose over time until the goal dose is reached. However, the evaluation shows that over 30% of individuals quit after the primary 4 weeks of treatment before reaching the goal dose.

The study examined pharmaceutical and medical claims for about 170,000 people with Blue Cross Blue Shield insurance policy and who were prescribed GLP-1 medications for weight management between 2014 and 2023.

“These are drugs used long-term to treat chronic diseases,” explained Dr. Disha Narang, director of obesity medicine at Chicago’s Endeavor Health, who was not involved in the brand new study. “It’s definitely a marathon, not a sprint. And if we treat it as a sprint, I think patients will probably get off their medications faster.”

Additionally, people who stopped using the medications were significantly less optimistic about their advantages. Specifically, only about half of individuals who had used injectable weight-loss medications prior to now found them effective, compared with almost three-quarters of individuals who were actively using these therapies.

Side effects resembling nausea, vomiting, constipation and diarrhea, that are common at first, can even put people off. Data from Wegova’s longest clinical trial showed that 17% of individuals using the drug decided to stop participating within the study because of uncomfortable side effects.

The cost of GLP-1 drugs can also be a barrier, because the monthly supply may be around $1,000 or more. However, the evaluation only included people with insurance policy that covered prescriptions for weight-loss drugs. Although insurance plan co-pays can have influenced cost considerations, the individuals analyzed didn’t should pay out-of-pocket for treatment.

The Blue Cross Blue Shield trial results highlight the critical role that providers can play in helping patients adhere to GLP-1 treatment.

Patients who had fewer visits with their providers, in addition to those living in underserved regions with significant health disparities, were more prone to discontinue GLP-1 treatment earlier. Dr. Razia Hashmi, vp of clinical affairs for the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, said each additional follow-up visit increases a patient’s likelihood of continuous treatment by 60%.

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Although most prescriptions were made by primary care physicians, those prescribed GLP-1 by endocrinologists or others with expertise in weight management were more prone to receive no less than 12 weeks of continuous treatment.

“General support services really make a difference – whether the person is managing lifestyle support, nutrition, diet and side effect management,” Hashmi said, adding that “health equity matters. Social factors that influence health – transportation, access to food, socioeconomic status – all make a difference too.”

Another recent report from Dandelion Health, a healthcare analytics company that used the electronic health records of nearly 17,000 people prescribed GLP-1 between 2019 and 2023, supports the idea that long-term treatment extends the advantages of the drugs.

As one in every of the primary reports to supply real data on the effectiveness of GLP-1, preliminary findings showed that people taking the drugs experienced a median weight lack of about 1.4% after three months, which progressively increased to a median of about 3% after a full 12 months of treatment .

Compared to a gaggle of individuals with similar clinical characteristics – closely matched on demographic aspects, treatment indicators resembling mean body mass index and incidence of diabetes, treatment history and incidence of related diseases – the evaluation showed that people taking GLP-1 they lost almost twice as much weight.

Although experts caution that the treatment process may vary for everyone, GLP-1 treatment can still produce significant results.

“Whether it’s an employer trying to make a decision or an individual patient trying to make a decision, it’s really important to understand the success factors,” Hashmi said. “We want the investment to pay off.”