While GLP-1 drugs continue to make headlines as an increasingly popular weight-loss tool, new research reveals that one in eight adults in the United States has taken a GLP-1 drug like Ozempic or Mounjar at some point in their lives.
According to a new health monitoring survey conducted by KFF during the last week of April, 6% of American adults – or more than 15 million people – are currently using such a drug.
Among adults who said they had taken a GLP-1 drug in their lifetime, 43% were told by a doctor that they had diabetes, 25% were told they had heart disease, and 22% were told they were overweight or obese in the past five years.
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While most adults say they took GLP-1 drugs to treat a chronic condition including diabetes or heart disease (62%), about four in 10 adults say they took them primarily to lose weight.
Underscoring the prohibitive cost of the drugs for many Americans, more than half (54%) of adults who took GLP-1 drugs said they were difficult to afford, including one in five (22%) who said it was “very difficult. ” Although most insured adults who took these drugs said their insurance covered at least part of the cost, about 53% of insured people said the cost was still difficult to bear.
Overall, older adults—especially those ages 50 to 64 and those 65 and older—were most likely to use GLP-1 medications, with only 1% of the 65-and-older group reporting taking medications to reduce body weight loss. KFF noted that this finding may reflect a lack of Medicare coverage for prescription drugs used for weight loss, despite four in 10 (37%) adults age 65 and older saying their doctor told them they were overweight. overweight or obese in the last five years.
Picture of medicine in the form of an injection.
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While Medicare is currently prohibited by law from covering prescription drugs used for weight loss, six in 10 adults say they think Medicare policy should change to cover the cost of these drugs when prescribed for weight loss to people who are clinically overweight.
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Younger adults, on the other hand, are more likely to use GLP-1 drugs solely for weight loss, according to the KFF study. About 7% of people aged 18 to 29 took GLP-1, followed by 6% of people aged 30 to 49.
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The research also looked at how adults procure the drugs, amid growing reports of shortages and limited availability as demand rises.
About eight in 10 (79%) adults said they got these drugs or a prescription for them from their primary care doctor or specialist, while others got them from an online provider or website (11%), a medical spa or an aesthetic medical center (10%) or somewhere else (2%).
Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education