A retrospective cohort from 2021 to 2023 MarketScan commercial claims followed 201,229 adults and 1,139 patients aged 10 to 17 with obesity but without diabetes for a year after starting a GLP-1 receptor agonist, measuring the monthly proportion of days covered. Roughly 3 in 10 adults (30.7%) were persistent users, while 19.6% discontinued immediately, 23.5% early and 20.7% late, and 5.5% used the drug intermittently. Among paediatric initiators 20.3% were persistent, and persistence was higher in the Northeast than the South (adult OR 1.32, paediatric OR 1.65), although commercial claims describe insured patients only.
Why it is interesting: A large claims-based estimate of how long people stay on the GLP-1 drugs in routine US practice, with fewer than 1 in 3 adults persistent at a year.