---
title: "GLP-1 Use in Children: Study Findings Reassuring for Severe Pediatric Obesity"
id: "stat-news-3-opinion-i-studied-glp-1-use-in-children-the-results-are-reassuring"
canonical_url: "https://medichelpline.com/clinical-feed/stat-news-3-opinion-i-studied-glp-1-use-in-children-the-results-are-reassuring"
content_type: "clinical_feed_article"
specialty: "Pediatrics"
source_name: "STAT News"
source_url: "https://www.statnews.com/2026/10/01/glp-1-weight-loss-drugs-children-research-obesity-disease/?utm_campaign=rss"
published_at: "2026-10-01T08:30:00.000Z"
evidence_level: "Verified Feed"
license: "CC-BY-NC-4.0 / Informational Use"
---
# GLP-1 Use in Children: Study Findings Reassuring for Severe Pediatric Obesity
## Provenance & Clinical Metadata
- **Canonical URL:** https://medichelpline.com/clinical-feed/stat-news-3-opinion-i-studied-glp-1-use-in-children-the-results-are-reassuring
- **Specialty:** [Pediatrics](https://medichelpline.com/clinical-feed/pediatrics.md)
- **Primary Source:** STAT News
- **Source URL:** [Original Journal Publication](https://www.statnews.com/2026/10/01/glp-1-weight-loss-drugs-children-research-obesity-disease/?utm_campaign=rss)
- **Published At:** 2026-10-01T08:30:00.000Z
- **Evidence Rating:** Verified Feed
## Executive GIST (TL;DR)
- The author, a transplant surgeon and obesity medicine specialist, reports research showing a **310-fold increase** in GLP-1 receptor agonist prescriptions for children aged 8–11 with obesity since 2019. - Despite the large relative increase, only **0.6%** of the more than 3.5 million children aged 8–11 with obesity in the study received a GLP-1 prescription, indicating use remains uncommon overall. - Most prescriptions have been targeted to those at highest risk: **94%** of children prescribed GLP-1s had **severe obesity** and concurrent complications such as sleep apnea, prediabetes, hypertension, metabolic dysfunction–associated steatotic liver disease, and hyperlipidemia. - The author connects rising childhood obesity to later organ failure and transplant need, citing adolescents with severe obesity as up to **nine times** more likely to develop chronic kidney disease and childhood fatty liver disease as increasing mortality risk **40-fold** and becoming a leading cause of liver transplant in young adults. - Current approvals allow some GLP-1 drugs for adolescents 12 and older, but none are approved for younger children; FDA approval for younger ages could improve insurance coverage and access but also risk broader use without long-term growth and puberty data. - The author argues against a false binary between systemic prevention and medical treatment: both policy interventions (taxing sugar-sweetened beverages, restricting advertising tax deductions, improving school nutrition) and evidence-based clinical treatment for affected children are necessary. - The piece emphasizes the social and environmental drivers of pediatric obesity—neighborhoods limiting activity, ultra-processed food marketing, food insecurity, and economic pressures—framing medical treatment as a response to those systemic harms rather than their cause. - The author’s clinical aim is upstream intervention to prevent progression to irreversible disease and to reduce future need for transplantation by treating children already harmed by obesity while pushing for systemic changes.
## Clinical Analysis & Structured Key Points
Are weight-loss drugs being prescribed properly to children? | STAT Skip to Main Content Opinion First Opinion I studied GLP-1 use in children. The results are reassuring These medications are changing lives for kids who need them Manage alerts for this article Save this story for later Share this article Adobe By Babak J. Orandi Oct. 1, 2026 Orandi is a transplant surgeon, an obesity medicine specialist, a health services researcher, and an associate professor of surgery and medicine at NYU Langone. I am a transplant surgeon, and my patients are getting younger . Many are in their 30s and 40s — adults whose organ failure can be traced back to childhood obesity. And obesity itself can be a barrier to transplant , compounding the crisis it created. The data confirm what I see clinically. Adolescents with severe obesity are up to nine times more likely to develop chronic kidney disease in young adulthood, even without diabetes or hypertension. Childhood fatty liver disease increases mortality risk 40-fold and has become the fastest-growing cause of liver transplants in young adults. Advertisement Related Story STAT Plus: Study of GLP-1 guidelines for teens points to potential for influence from drugmakers These findings, and the faces behind them, led me to pursue additional training in obesity medicine. While I am grateful to be able to offer transplant, I wanted to reach patients before they need a transplant. It would be alarmist to suggest that parents need to add “my child will need a liver transplant one day” to their ever-growing list of concerns. But 20% of children in the U.S. have obesity . We cannot look away from that number or its consequences. My research team and I recently published a study showing a 310-fold increase in GLP-1 receptor agonist prescriptions for children ages 8-11 with obesity since 2019. Several drugs in this class are approved to treat obesity in adolescents 12 and older, but none are currently approved for younger children. Advertisement FDA approval for younger children could lead to broader insurance coverage and help narrow the disparities in access we found in this study. But it could also open the door to broader, more liberal use in less severe cases, which is not justified without long-term data on how these medications impact growth and puberty. When the American Academy of Pediatrics published obesity management guidelines including recommendations about GLP-1s in 2023, the public reaction was intense . I understand the discomfort. The idea of a child receiving an injection for weight loss strikes at something deep — a desire to let children be children, free from adult burdens. But the data show a more nuanced picture. Among more than 3.5 million children ages 8-11 with obesity in our study, only 0.6% received a GLP-1 prescription. This number is too low. The majority of children with severe obesity and its complications were never prescribed a GLP-1. Related Story For a 9-year-old patient at a Los Angeles obesity clinic, barriers to health are everywhere Indeed, my pediatrician colleagues are carefully reserving these medications for children at greatest risk: 94% of children prescribed GLP-1s had severe obesity. These children are already manifesting adult diseases that stem from obesity: sleep apnea, prediabetes, hypertension, metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (previously “fatty liver disease”), and hyperlipidemia. We can and should be concerned about “medicalizing” childhood. But children with obesity complications have already had their childhood medicalized — not by a physician, but by the environment that made them sick. Without intervention, their trajectory leads to a profoundly medicalized adulthood. The prescription is not the beginning of medicalization; it is the response to childhood medicalization already underway. Many trends led us here. Children grow up in neighborhoods that discourage physical activity, in food environments dominated by ultra-processed foods marketed directly to them , and in families pressured by rising costs, food insecurity, and limited time. We have built an environment that produces obesity with remarkable efficiency. Advertisement We can and should be outraged that 20% of U.S. children suffer from obesity. For too long, we have blamed individuals for a systemic failure. We should direct that ire at the systems that created this crisis — not at the parents or clinicians trying to prevent its worst consequences. In our polarized society, we feel compelled to choose sides: fix the food system or treat children. This is a false binary that leads to therapeutic nihilism. We must demand systemic changes. Three policies alone — taxing sugar-sweetened beverages, ending tax deductions for advertising unhealthy food to children, and improving school nutrition standards — have been projected to save more in health care costs than their cost to implement. And we must offer evidence-based treatment to children suffering from obesity and its complications. The solution is certainly not to deny them the care they require to prevent disease progression. Both efforts must happen simultaneously. Related Story Obesity drug worked in children ages 6 to 12, study says, raising hopes and concerns Transplantation is extraordinary. It gives people their lives back. But it also means years on a waiting list that not everyone survives, lifelong immunosuppression, and the risk of rejection. What if, for some of these young adults, the need for transplant could have been prevented altogether? Intervening in childhood could save them from decades of irreversible damage. I became an obesity medicine physician because I wanted to move upstream of the end-stage organ disease process. I want to meet my patients at the beginning of their story rather than at the end. Treating children already harmed by obesity and changing the systems that harmed them are not competing priorities. They are how we keep more young adults off the transplant waiting list. Babak J. Orandi, M.D., Ph.D, is a transplant surgeon, an obesity medicine specialist, a health services researcher, and an associate professor of surgery and medicine at NYU Langone. Letter to the editor Have an opinion on this essay? Submit a letter to the editor . children’s health , Obesity , public health , weight loss Submit a correction request Reprints Babak J. Orandi Newsletter The smartest thinkers in life sciences on what's happening — and what's to come Please enter a valid email address. Sign Up Your data will be processed in accordance with our Privacy Policy and Terms of Service . 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