GLP-1 drugs Decrease Bariatric Surgery

Between 2022 and 2023, prescriptions for GLP-1 drugs soared 132.6% while bariatric surgery rates fell 25.6%, according to a new study from researchers at Boston-based Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

The findings offer a clearer picture of how the growing popularity of GLP-1 weight loss drugs is affecting demand for bariatric surgeries, which have long been the gold standard treatments for weight loss.

“Our study provides one of the first national estimates of the decline in utilization of bariatric metabolic surgery among privately insured patients corresponding to the rising use of blockbuster GLP-1 RA drugs,” Thomas Tsai, MD, senior study author and a metabolic bariatric surgeon at Boston-based Brigham and Women’s Hospital, said in a news release.

The study was published Oct. 25 in JAMA Network Open and is based on a national sample of insurance claims data from more than 17 million privately insured adults. Using the data set, researchers identified patients with an obesity diagnosis who did not have diabetes in 2022 and 2023, and compared the portion of patients who were prescribed GLP-1 medications to those who underwent metabolic bariatric surgery.

Among the patients with obesity, nearly 95% did not receive either form of treatment, underscoring widespread access challenges, researchers said.

The findings add empirical evidence to a trend surgeons began calling attention to early this year. In March, several bariatric surgeons told Becker’s referrals were decreasing. In June, Vizient released a report that estimated inpatient bariatric surgery rates will drop 15% by 2034 due to more weight loss drugs entering the market and outpatient surgery volumes increasing.

In terms of cost comparisons, several studies suggest bariatric surgeries may be more cost effective in the long run, despite their upfront cost of between $15,000 and $23,000.