20% of adults use medications that cause weight gain

According to the results published in, 1 in 5 adults in the 2017-2018 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey reported prescriptions for obesity-inducing drugs. obesity..

Craig M. Hales

“The prevalence of obesity in adults in the United States has increased over the decades. The use of certain prescription drugs can lead to weight gain and hinder weight loss efforts.” Craig M. Hales, MD, MPH, MS, A medical epidemiologist at the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics told Healio. “However, it was unclear how commonly adults use these drugs. Trends in obesity-inducing prescription drugs in US adults from 1999 to 2018, overall and by treatment class. We also wanted to see if there was a link between obesity and the use of prescription obesity medications in each treatment class. “

Researchers evaluated cross-sectional data from 52,340 adults aged 20 and over in NHANES from 1999 to 2018. Obesity-inducing agents were defined according to the guidelines of the 2015 Endocrine Society, and body weight status was classified as normal body weight by BMI (BMI <25 kg / m).²n = 2,792), overweight (BMI 25-29.9 kg / m)²N = 3,357), class 1 and 2 obesity (BMI 30-39.9 kg / m)²N = 3,402) and class 3 obesity (BMI> 40 kg / m)²; n = 893).

NHANES 2017-2018 reported that 20.3% of adults are using at least one obesity-inducing drug. This is a significant increase from the 13.2% observed in 1999-2000. The most common obesity treatments are beta-blockers and diabetes, with 9.8% and 5.7% of participants reporting their use, respectively. Conversely, antipsychotics are the most commonly unprescribed obesity drug, accounting for only 1% of patients.

Researchers have observed glucose metabolism, hypertension, neuralgia or neuritis, heart disease, musculoskeletal pain and / or inflammation as the most common reasons for prescribing obesity-inducing drugs.

Researchers have observed that proportional use of anticonvulsant obesity-inducing drugs increased from 34.4% in 1999 to 55% in 2018. However, antidepressants (32.1% vs. 18.8%), diabetes (82.9% vs. 52.5%), and beta-blockers (83.9% vs. 80.7%) decreased over the same period.

Proportional use of obesity-inducing drugs, with the exception of antipsychotics, was not associated with patient weight status, according to the researchers.

“The most important limitation of this study is the lack of a consensus list of obesity-inducing drugs,” Hales said. “Various systematic reviews of obesity treatments have created variations in which treatments are identified as obesity.”

For more information:

Craig M. Hales, MD, MPH, MS, You can contact us at ewx2@cdc.gov.