Semaglutide treatment may substantially reduce obesity prevalence and CVD events

Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) and obesity are linked over a long period of time, with growing medical sciences newer management methods are brought to light. The evidence certain glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP1) receptor agonists have in reducing cardiovascular outcomes in persons with diabetes has been of great interest. Recently, however, GLP1 receptor agonists in higher dosages than those used for diabetes are known to dramatically impact body weight loss leading to further interest and investigation.

A recent study in Cardiovascular drugs and therapy journal investigated the effects of Semaglutide and its efficacy in weight loss and CVD risk in US population.

The researchers conducted a randomized trial and found that weekly injection of semaglutide potentially could help millions of adults with overweight or obesity lose weight and reduce their risk of cardiovascular events such as heart attack and stroke by up to 20%, which was also associated with low healthcare costs.

Researchers add on that over 90 million US adults with overweight or obesity would be potentially eligible for semaglutide treatment for chronic weight management. Such treatment could reduce by nearly half the size of the population with obesity, as well as prevent up to 1.5 million CVD events if treated for 10 years.

The study was designed as a STEP 1 trial eligibility criteria to US adults aged ≥ 18 years in the US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2015-2018 to estimate the US eligible population. Semaglutide weight changes in STEP 1 were applied to estimate the population impact on weight changes and obesity prevalence. They also estimated 10-year CVD risks utilizing the BMI-based Framingham CVD risk scores. The difference in estimated risks with and without semaglutide “treatment” multiplied by the eligible NHANES weighted population represented the estimated “preventable” CVD events.

The key findings of the study are

• A total of 3999 US adults weighted to an estimated population size of 93.0 million [M] (38% of US adults) who fit STEP 1 eligibility criteria.

• Applying STEP 1 treatment effects on weight loss resulted in an estimated 69.1% (64.3 M) and 50.5% (47.0 M) showing ≥ 10% and ≥ 15% weight reductions, respectively, translating to a 46.1% (43.0 M) reduction in obesity (BMI ≥ 30 kg/m2) prevalence.

• Among those without CVD, estimated 10-year CVD risks were 10.15% “before” and 8.34% “after” semaglutide “treatment” reflecting a 1.81% absolute (and 17.8% relative) risk reduction translating to 1.50 million preventable CVD events over 10 years.

Researchers concluded that “Semaglutide treatment in eligible US adults may substantially reduce obesity prevalence and CVD events, which may dramatically impact associated healthcare costs.”

Reference: Wong, N.D., Karthikeyan, H. & Fan, W. US Population Eligibility and Estimated Impact of Semaglutide Treatment on Obesity Prevalence and Cardiovascular Disease Events. Cardiovasc Drugs Ther (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10557-023-07488-3