Characteristics of patients potentially eligible for pharmacotherapy for weight loss in primary care practice in the United States

OBJECTIVE To describe the characteristics of real-world patients potentially eligible for adjunctive pharmacotherapy for weight loss. METHODS Patients from the GE Centricity electronic medical record database were selected if they had body mass index (BMI) ≥30 or ≥27 to <30 kg m-2 with ≥1 obesity-associated comorbidity (hypertension, dyslipidemia, or type 2 diabetes) from 2002-2011; were aged ≥18 years and had ≥12 months of continuous enrollment before and after the date of first eligible BMI recorded (index date). Descriptive statistics and logistic regression were used for analysis. RESULTS Of the 1,835,541 patients with overweight or obesity included, comorbidities were common (hypertension [55.4%], dyslipidemia [36.1%] and type 2 diabetes [13.4%]). The percentage of patients who received pharmacotherapy for weight loss was 0.7% within 12 months after the index date. Patients who received pharmacotherapy had higher BMI (median, 33.6 vs. 31.3 kg m-2), were younger (median, 42 vs. 52 years), primarily women (84.3 vs. 58.2%), commercially insured (70.1 vs. 50.4%) and had more frequent use of antidepressants (30.8 vs. 14.1%) and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (21.7 vs. 12.0%) than those who did not at baseline (all P values < 0.0001). CONCLUSIONS Few eligible patients received pharmacotherapy for weight loss. Patients who received pharmacotherapy tended to be heavier, younger, female, commercially insured, and used more antidepressants and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs.