Weight-loss drugs once used mainly by adults are increasingly being prescribed to young children, according to new research. But the rapid rise reveals a surprising reality about who is getting them. The study, led by researchers at New York University, examined prescribing trends for glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1 RAs), a class of drugs that includes Wegovy, Saxenda and Zepbound, among U.S. children aged 8 to 11 with obesity but without diabetes.
Using data from more than 3.5 million children in the Epic Cosmos electronic health record network, the researchers tracked prescriptions between January 2019 and June 2026. The prevalence of GLP-1 prescriptions increased from just 0.03 percent of eligible children in 2019 to 9.3 percent in 2026, representing a 310-fold increase over the study period. Yet even after that dramatic rise, only 0.6 percent of the 3.52 million children included in the study had ever received a prescription for one of the medications.
The findings come amid growing interest in the use of GLP-1 medications for obesity treatment. While some of these drugs have received U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval for adolescents aged 12 and older, no obesity medication is currently FDA-approved for children under 12, although professional guidelines allow clinicians to consider their use in some younger patients.
The study suggests physicians are largely reserving the drugs for children facing the greatest health risks. Young patients prescribed GLP-1 medications were far more likely to have severe obesity and obesity-related health conditions than those who did not receive the treatments. Nearly 94 percent of children given a GLP-1 drug had severe obesity, compared with about 52 percent of non-users.
For parents wondering when medical treatment should enter the conversation, lead investigator Dr. Orandi, an obesity medicine specialist and associate professor at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, said lifestyle measures remain the starting point. Children with obesity-related complications also had much higher prescribing rates.
The highest rates were seen among children with prediabetes, followed by those with hypertension, metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease, hyperlipidemia and obstructive sleep apnea. Prescribing patterns also differed across demographic groups. Older children were more likely to receive the medications than younger ones, while girls were prescribed GLP-1 drugs at a higher rate than boys.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
