In 2024, 4% of U.S. adults were prescribed a GLP-1 therapy — a 363.7% increase from 0.9% in 2019, according to a Fair Health analysis of more than 51 billion commercial claim records.
Fair Health also found that, over those six years, the percentage of adults with a GLP-1 prescription for obesity or overweight increased from 0.3% in 2019 to 2.05% in 2024, a relative increase of 586.7%.
Obesity and overweight diagnoses are outpacing GLP-1 utilization trends, however. In 2024, more than 80% of patients with an overweight or obesity diagnosis “did not receive a GLP-1 prescription, bariatric surgery or behavioral health service,” the report found. “Only 11.2% of such patients received a GLP-1 prescription, 6.3% received behavioral health services and 0.28% had bariatric surgery.”
Seven key findings from the report:
1. Overall, U.S. adults who received an obesity or overweight diagnosis but not a Type 2 diabetes diagnosis increased from 0.03% in 2019 to 0.67% in 2024, a relative increase of about 1,961%.
2. Among all adults with a GLP-1 prescription, the percentage of those diagnosed with obesity or overweight but not Type 2 diabetes increased from 3.7% in 2019 to 16.5% in 2024.
3. Patients ages 18-39 accounted for the largest increase in GLP-1 prescriptions, from 0.19% to 1.33%.
Fair Health’s report did not analyze claims for pediatric patients, but other studies have found sharp increases in GLP-1 utilization among Generation Alpha, whose members are 14 and younger, and Gen Z, whose members are ages 15-28.
4. Between the year before a GLP-1 prescription and the year after, pancreatitis diagnoses increased more than 80% among patients without a Type 2 diabetes diagnosis. This was the largest percent increase among co-occurring diagnoses.
5. Bariatric surgeries decreased from 0.12% in 2019 to 0.07% in 2024, a relative 41.8% decline.
6. Patients with an overweight or obesity diagnosis and a GLP-1 prescription experienced a dramatic decrease in behavioral health services. In 2019, 47.2% of them used behavioral health services, which fell to 12.4% by 2024.
7. Ozempic remained the most prescribed GLP-1 medication. The Type 2 diabetes therapy saw a prescribing increase from 0.1% to 2% during the time period. Mounjaro, Saxenda, Wegovy and Zepbound saw more mild growth.
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