Semaglutide reduces weight, improves cardiometabolic parameters for older adults
Key takeaways:
- Older adults with obesity receiving Wegovy lost 15.4% of their body weight at 68 weeks.
- The semaglutide group had greater improvements in multiple cardiometabolic parameters compared with placebo.
Once-weekly injectable semaglutide 2.4 mg was linked to reductions in body weight and improvements in multiple cardiometabolic parameters for older adults with obesity, according to a pooled analysis of the STEP trials.
“Older adults represent, in many countries, the age group with the higher prevalence of obesity and related complications,” Luca Busetto, PhD, professor in nutrition and dietetic sciences at University of Padova in Italy, told Healio. “Nearly half of the cases of obesity occur in older ages. Despite these epidemiological data, older adults represent a minority in the randomized controlled trials analyzing the effects of new obesity management medication. Our analysis of the pooled data of semaglutide in adults aged 65 years and older demonstrated that [it] was equally effective in weight loss in this age group than in the general population enrolled in the trials, mostly represented by younger people.”
In research presented at the European Congress on Obesity, Busetto and colleagues collected data from the STEP 1, 3, 4, 5, 8 and 9 trials of adults aged at least 65 years with obesity and without diabetes. Participants were randomly assigned to once-weekly semaglutide 2.4 mg (Wegovy, Novo Nordisk) or placebo in all six of the trials. Researchers assessed change in body weight and cardiometabolic parameters from baseline to 68 weeks.
There were 358 adults aged at least 65 years (mean age, 69 years; 72.3% women) enrolled in the STEP trials, of whom 248 received semaglutide and 110 received placebo. At 68 weeks, adults receiving semaglutide had a greater reduction in body weight (–15.4% vs. –5.1%) and larger decline in waist circumference (–14.3 cm vs. –6 cm) compared with placebo, the researchers found.
The semaglutide group had a higher percentage of participants lose at least 10% (66.5% vs. 15.5%), 15% (46.8% vs. 6.4%) and 20% of body weight (28.6% vs. 2.7%) compared with the placebo group, Busetto and colleagues found. A greater proportion of older adults receiving semaglutide had a waist-to-height ratio of less than 0.53 compared with placebo (11.3% vs. 4.5%). At 68 weeks, 27% of the semaglutide group had a BMI of less than 27 kg/m2 compared with 5.5% of the placebo group.
Adults receiving semaglutide had greater improvements in multiple cardiometabolic parameters, including fasting plasma glucose, fasting serum insulin, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, triglycerides, LDL cholesterol and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein compared with placebo.
The researchers found that adverse events occurred among 89.1% of the semaglutide group and 84.5% of the placebo group, serious adverse events were observed among 19% of adults receiving semaglutide and 12.7% of those receiving placebo and a higher proportion of the semaglutide group reported constipation and dizziness compared with placebo.
“Some age-related adverse events, such as falls and hypoglycemic events, were more frequent in the elderly population, but without significant differences in respect to the placebo group,” Busetto said in an interview. “This suggests that these side effects could be more age-related than treatment-related.”
Busetto said more research is needed to examine how semaglutide impacts body composition, bone health and muscular function, as there is a lack of randomized controlled trial data in that area.
For more information:
Luca Busetto, PhD, is a professor in nutrition and dietetic sciences in the department of medicine and director of the Graduate School of Clinical Nutrition at University of Padova in Italy and director of the clinical nutrition unit at Padova University Hospital. Busetto can be reached at luca.busetto@unipd.it.
Sources/Disclosures
Source:
Busetto L, et al. Abstract 1681. Presented at: European Congress on Obesity; May 12-15, 2026; Istanbul.
Disclosures: Busetto reports advising for Amgen, Boehringer Ingelheim, Bruno Farmaceutici, Eli Lilly, Novo Nordisk, Pfizer, Recordati, Regeneron and Roche; and speaking for PronoKal and Rhythm Pharmaceuticals. The study was funded by Novo Nordisk.
Ask a clinical question and tap into Healio AI's knowledge base.
- PubMed, enrolling/recruiting trials, guidelines
- Clinical Guidance, Healio CME, FDA news
- Healio's exclusive daily news coverage of clinical data
Read more about
