GLP-1 use among young children with obesity remains rare but increased rapidly from 2019 to 2026, according to a study published Sept. 4 in Pediatrics.
Here are five things to know:
- Among children ages 8 to 11 with obesity and without diabetes, GLP-1 prescribing increased from 0.03% in 2019 to 9.3% in 2026 — a 310-fold increase over 7.5 years.
- During the study period, 20,282 children ages 8 to 11 were prescribed GLP-1s. Prescriptions were less common among young children with obesity than among adolescents with obesity, at 0.6% and 0.9%, respectively.
- Most children prescribed GLP-1s had severe obesity (93.7%), while 65.2% had at least one obesity-related condition. Twenty-five percent had prediabetes.
- Young children with obesity living in upper-income communities were 55% more likely to be prescribed GLP-1 medications than children living in lower-income communities.
- Researchers used Epic Cosmos, which includes electronic health records from more than 300 million U.S. patients across 2,067 hospitals and 47,100 health clinics.
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