The growing trend of children and teens using GLP-1 medications like Ozempic isn\u2019t completely without its risks. Recent research shows that young people are sometimes developing nutritional deficiencies after they start taking one of these drugs.<\/p>\n
Scientists at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and others examined the medical records of children and teens who went on a GLP-1. Almost one in six ended up newly diagnosed with a deficiency, they found. The results suggest that doctors should be keeping a close eye on the nutritional health of kids prescribed these treatments, the researchers say.<\/p>\n
\u201cNutritional deficiencies are a meaningful and underrecognized risk among pediatric patients receiving GLP-1RA therapy,\u201d the authors wrote in their paper, published<\/a> last week in the journal Childhood Obesity.<\/p>\n An underrecognized risk <\/p>\n Childhood obesity is a serious issue. About 22% of adolescents ages 12 to 19 are obese, according to the latest data<\/a> from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as are 21% of children ages 6 to 11.<\/p>\n GLP-1 drugs like semaglutide (Ozempic and Wegovy) and tirzepatide (Mounjaro and Zepbound) have emerged as effective options for obesity and type 2 diabetes, including for children. At the same time, there remains<\/a> much that we don\u2019t know about the use of these drugs in kids.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n In this latest study, the researchers analyzed claims data from a large database of real-world patients. Between 2017 and 2022, they identified roughly 2,000 children ages 10 to 17 who were started on a GLP-1 and had no preexisting deficiency noted in their medical records.<\/p>\n Within a year\u2019s time after going on a GLP-1, they found that about 17% of these children were diagnosed with either a deficiency or a complication related to a deficiency, such as anemia. The most common diagnosis was vitamin D deficiency (12%), followed by nutritional anemia (1.55%) and iron-deficiency anemia (1.44%).<\/p>\n What to take away <\/p>\n This is only an observational study, meaning that the researchers can\u2019t conclusively prove that the children\u2019s GLP-1 use contributed to their later deficiencies. The study also covers a period of time prior to the more widespread adoption of these drugs for children.<\/p>\n Still, research has shown that intentional weight loss in general can increase<\/a> people\u2019s risk of nutritional deficiency. And other recent studies have shown<\/a> a similar link between GLP-1 use and nutrition-related problems, including serious, if rare, health conditions caused by certain deficiencies.<\/p>\n Though this study can\u2019t tell us exactly why kids on GLP-1s develop these problems, the researchers do point to potential gaps in the care they got from their doctors. Only about 5% of people in the study were given dietary counseling in the first 30 days after being prescribed a GLP-1, and only a quarter of people received it within six months.<\/p>\n \u201cWe hope that our study findings bring much-needed recognition to the importance of proactive nutritional management when GLP-1s are prescribed to children, as opposed to waiting until a nutritional deficiency is diagnosed,\u201d said study author Justin Ryder, an associate professor of surgery and pediatrics at Northwestern as well as a surgeon at the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children\u2019s Hospital of Chicago, in a statement<\/a> from the hospital. \u201cKnowing the risks, we are in a much better position to prevent harm to children treated with GLP-1s during a pivotal period in their lives.\u201d<\/p>\n