Public Health Should Embrace GLP-1 Drugs without Abandoning Obesity Prevention

Following the White House’s recent announcement of price reductions and expanded coverage for GLP-1 medications like Wegovy and Zepbound, many patients searching for obesity treatments are about to gain access to highly effective options.

The implications for U.S. public health are vast.

As a population health researcher examining the widening of the U.S. mortality gap compared to other high-income countries, my work has shown that rising obesity has reduced the annual rate of improvement in U.S. death rates by just over half a percentage point per year. I have also found that differences in life expectancy between the U.S. and other high-income countries would be more than 40% smaller for women and 60% smaller for men if differences in obesity were eliminated.