Who uses weight loss medicines in Denmark?

In 2023, 117,500 adults redeemed a prescription for a weight loss medicine. This corresponds to 2.4 per cent of the adult population. Weight loss medicines are mainly targeted at people with a BMI of at least 30, but what else characterises the users?

This analysis takes a closer look at the users of weight loss medicines, with a special focus on users in the first half of 2023. In the analysis, data on redeemed prescriptions is combined with information from Statistics Denmark’s registers. This allows, among other things, to examine the users’ sex, age, income, and municipality of residence.

Main conclusions:

• The number and proportion of adults who have redeemed at least one prescription for weight loss medicines has increased significantly from 15,200 (0.3 per cent) in 2021 to 27,800 (0.6 per cent) in 2022 and 117,500 (2.4 per cent) in 2023. However, the number is still lower than 25 years ago when 131,100 adults (3.1 per cent) used weight loss medicines.
• The proportion of users of weight loss medicines is higher for women in all years. In the first half of 2023, 72 per cent of the users were women and 28 per cent were men.
• The proportion of users was highest in the age group of 50-59-year-olds (3.2 per cent) and lowest in the age group of 80-year-olds and older (0.1 per cent).
• The proportion of users of weight loss medicines increases with income. In the first half of 2023, 1.6 per cent of the people in the lowest income quintile used weight loss med-icines, while it was about 3.4 per cent of the people in the highest income quintile - when using the equivalised disposable family income among the 30-59-year-olds.
• There is a difference in the proportion of users of weight loss medicines across municipalities. The highest proportion of users was in Tårnby (2.9 per cent), while the lowest proportion was in Læsø (0.8 per cent).
• Gentofte municipality had the highest proportion of users of weight loss medicines in the first part of 2023 when the proportion is related to people with self-reported obesity in 2021. In Gentofte, there were 24.5 users of weight loss medicines per 100 people liv-ing with obesity, while in Læsø, there were 2.9 users per 100 people living with obesity.

The analysis is available in Danish here: Hvem bruger slankelægemidler?