Longitudinal Analysis of Obesity Drug Use and Public Awareness
Authors' conclusion
This repeated cross-sectional study shows the dynamic growth and evolving share of new obesity medications since 2017 and a significant shift toward semaglutide and tirzepatide prescribing. The joint surge in prescriptions and online searches and their close correlation highlight the real-time associations between public awareness and prescription trends.
Study context
- Population
- US retail prescriptions for FDA-approved obesity management drugs (IQVIA National Prescription Audit, ≈90% of US retail dispensing) and Google searches, July 1, 2017 to February 29, 2024
- Outcome
- Trends in OMD prescriptions and online searches; correlation by Spearman rank correlation
Methodological detailspopulation-level
- Population-level
Main finding
As reported in the abstract
- OMD prescriptions dispensed in the US during study period
- 69 213 936
- Mean (SD) annual growth rate
- 5.3% (9.4%)
- Total monthly OMD prescriptions, February 2024
- 1.5 million
- Share of all prescriptions, February 2024
- 0.41%
- Monthly prescriptions Feb 2024: phentermine / Wegovy / Zepbound
- 0.74 million / 0.42 million / 0.25 million
- Searches per 10 million, Feb 2024: Wegovy / Zepbound / phentermine
- 636.3 / 468.9 / 301.8
- Prescription–search correlation, semaglutide (Wegovy)
- r = 0.97
- Prescription–search correlation, tirzepatide (Zepbound)
- r = 0.90
Observational data: associations, not effects.
Further findings
Prescriber share of OMD prescriptions · July 2017 to February 2024
- Advanced practice practitioners (APP) share
- 25.3% to 40.6%
- PCP and internist share
- 57.9% to 48.1%
Drug share of total obesity management drugs (OMDs) among APPs and primary care physicians (PCPs)/internists, respectively · February 2024 (phentermine from July 2017)
- Wegovy share
- 27.7% and 28.3%
- Zepbound share
- 16.1% and 16.5%
- Phentermine share, July 2017 to February 2024
- 86.3% and 85.1% to 50.8% and 49.7%
Original publication
Composed by AI from the published abstract and checked against it. How Briefs are made →