More than 1.1 million U.S. adults with no documented diabetes or qualifying obesity were prescribed a GLP-1 drug such as semaglutide or tirzepatide from 2021 to 2025, according to a study published online September 22 in the journal Obesity. The prescribing rate in this group rose 15-fold, from 0.1% in 2021 to 1.5% in 2025, Medscape reported. More than a third of these patients, 35.1%, had a body mass index (BMI) in the normal range.
These are powerful medicines studied mainly in people with obesity or type 2 diabetes. For people outside those groups, the balance of benefits and risks is not well understood, a point the study's authors stressed.
