Real-Life Efficacy of Liraglutide Therapy on Weight-Loss in Patients with Overweight and Obesity

Author(s): Michela Del Prete, Federico Vignati, Gianleone Di Sacco, Lidia Gavazzi, Daniela Dellepiane and Fabrizio Muratori.

Introduction: Liraglutide is approved for long-term weight-loss in patients with overweight and obesity as an adjunct to lifestyle modification. Here, we reported our real-life experience on long-term efficacy of liraglutide therapy in association with dietary and behavioral advice, in patients with obesity followed in our outpatient clinic.

Methods: We retrospectively assessed 109 patients with obesity (92 females and 17 males) consecutively admitted to our observation from September 2018 to October 2019 to lose weight with liraglutide. At the first visit, mean weight was 93.2±17.9 kg and mean body mass index (BMI) was 34.0±5.5 kg/m2. All patients were required to follow dietary and behavioral therapy with concomitant drug treatment. Liraglutide was administered once-daily subcutaneously at starting dose of 0.6 mg and with the achievement of 3.0 mg in two months from the starting therapy. The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy and safety of liraglutide in our real-life patients and how the early weight loss after 4 months of therapy with liraglutide can predict long-term weight loss.

Results: After 4-month follow up, patients had a mean weight of 83.3±16.3 kg and mean BMI of 30.4±5.0 kg/m2, with a mean percentage weight and mean BMI reduction respectively of -10.5±3.8% and -3.6±1.4 kg/m2. After 12-month follow up, 34 patients were still on treatment with liraglutide. These patients had a mean weight of 78.9±13.5 kg and mean BMI of 28.5±4.6 kg/ m2, with a mean percentage weight and mean BMI reduction respectively of -22.0±5.0% and -8.1±2.4 kg/m2. The early weight loss and BMI changes after 4-month liraglutide therapy significantly predict the weight loss and BMI changes at 6- and 12-month follow-up (p<0.0001).

Conclusions: Our results confirm the efficacy of real-life therapy with liraglutide in patients with obesity and are consistent with data obtained from the clinical trials. Our data show how early weight loss and reduction in BMI after 4 months of liraglutide therapy can significantly predict long-term weight loss.