Lots of strange things happened in 2023. But one thing (arguably the most notable thing to happen that year) went largely unnoticed. For the first time since the 1980s, the number of people with obesity in the US decreased.
According to the National Center for Health Statistics, the obesity rate dropped by almost two per cent – from 41.9 per cent in 2017–2020 to 40.3 per cent in 2021–2023.
So what caused this sudden change in American health? While we can’t say for certain that it was a result of weight-loss drugs, data from the Kaiser Family Foundation (an independent source for health policy research) says that one in eight US adults has used a weight-loss drug like Ozempic at some point in their life. And since around half of these adults are currently using a prescription, it’s fair to say that drugs like these are likely to have played a part.