NEJM: A GLP-1 Effective for Obesity in Children as Young as Six

In every way we look at this study, it is a remarkable milestone. With a randomized, controlled trial, Claudia Fox and colleagues have shown that a GLP-1, liraglutide, is effective for obesity in children as young as six years of age. In this year-long study, children who received liraglutide for obesity reduced their body mass index by 5.8% while children who received a placebo and lifestyle interventions increased their BMI by 1.6%. The difference in outcomes for these 82 children under 12 and as young as six, was highly significant. These findings were simultaneously published in the NEJM and at the European Association for the Study of Diabetes annual meeting.

Fox summed up the implications succinctly:

“To date, children have had virtually no options for treating obesity. They have been told to ‘try harder’ with diet and exercise. Now with the possibility of a medication that addresses the underlying physiology of obesity, there is hope that children living with obesity can live healthier, more productive lives.

“There’s a feeling among patients’ families that they just need to work harder to lose weight, but going to the park more and eating better food isn’t always enough. We can’t just rely only on behavioral interventions for a biological disease and get significant improvement.”

A Chronic, Progressive Disease

These results leave no doubt. Obesity in children is a chronic disease that will progress without treatment. Of course, more research will be necessary to fully understand the long term outcomes from treating children early in the course of childhood obesity.

But persons who have grown up with obesity from an early age can tell you what happens without treatment. More weight gain occurs as the years pass. Health problems and stresses from bullying and weight stigma become daunting.

Professor Stephen O’Rahilly commented on this landmark study, saying:

“While efforts to prevent childhood obesity through altering the ‘obesogenic environment’ remain a high priority, safe and effective treatments that can help children with obesity, particularly those where it is severe, are needed immediately. It seems likely that we see more trials in this age group, and that they will involve the use of increasingly more effective weight loss drugs.”

Finding ways to help children experiencing severe obesity should be among our highest medical priorities. Medical care has failed them and their families for far too long.

Click here for the study and here for the editorial alongside it. For further reporting, click here, here, and here.

Fragment from the “Children’s Concert,” painting by Georgios Jakobides / WikiArt

Subscribe by email to follow the accumulating evidence and observations that shape our view of health, obesity, and policy.

September 11, 2024