Since late 2022, rising uptake of GLP-1 medications for obesity has coincided with a decline in bariatric surgeries, according to a growing body of research.
A study published March 4 in JAMA Surgery found the swelling popularity of GLP-1 drugs for obesity, such as Wegovy and Zepbound, is not slowing — unlike bariatric surgery volumes. More patients are preferring GLP-1 therapies over bariatric operations, according to past research.
Researchers at Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center in Columbus and Wake Forest University School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, N.C., used the Epic EHR Cosmos database to identify nearly 32 million adults who were eligible for bariatric surgery.
In the third quarter of 2025, about 24% of U.S. adults diagnosed with obesity or overweight with at least one weight-related comorbid condition received a GLP-1 prescription, compared to 0.09% of the study population who underwent bariatric surgery.
The study analyzed prescriptions for either Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy or Eli Lilly’s Zepbound, as well as the volume of bariatric surgery procedures, from the third quarter of 2017 to the third quarter of 2025. Within that eight-year period, Wegovy and Zepbound prescriptions significantly increased as bariatric surgery volumes declined.
Between the fourth quarter of 2018 and the third quarter of 2025, GLP-1 prescriptions increased from 0.22% to 24.17%. The percentage of bariatric surgeries among adults declined from 0.17% in the fourth quarter of 2022 to 0.09% in the third quarter of 2025 — which equals a 46.4% decrease.