Obesity Medications: Current Practice, Policy Insights, and Real-World Outcomes

Obesity is a chronic, relapsing disease with profound health, social, and economic implications. Pharmacological therapies have advanced rapidly, with incretin-based medications such as GLP-1 receptor agonists and dual GLP-1/GIP agonists demonstrating unprecedented efficacy in weight reduction and comorbidity management. These developments are transforming obesity care, yet their adoption has outpaced the creation of clear evidence-based guidelines to support integration into everyday practice. In particular, there is limited real-world evidence on non-weight outcomes, such as dietary quality, cardiometabolic health, lean body mass preservation, and psychosocial well-being, that are crucial for sustainable management. At the same time, structured recommendations for combining pharmacotherapy with behavioral and lifestyle interventions remain absent, and policy frameworks continue to lag behind, leaving major gaps in equitable access, reimbursement, and long-term care strategies.

The goal of this Research Topic is to bridge critical gaps between the rapid scientific progress in
obesity pharmacotherapy and its safe, effective, and equitable application in real-world care.
Incretin-based medications offer unparalleled weight-loss efficacy, but success cannot be judged on
weight outcomes alone. There is a striking lack of real-world data on their broader impact. Moreover,
evidence-based guidelines to support integration of pharmacotherapy with behavioral and lifestyle
modification, the cornerstone of sustainable obesity management, are lacking. Concurrently,
healthcare systems and policies struggle with inequities in access, reimbursement, and
implementation. By convening multidisciplinary perspectives across clinical science, nutrition,
behavioral research, health economics, and policy, this collection seeks to enhance comprehensive
frameworks that embed pharmacotherapy within patient-centered, holistic, and sustainable obesity
care.

This Research Topic welcomes multidisciplinary contributions examining obesity medications and
their integration into comprehensive care.

We invite submissions on:
• Clinical and mechanistic insights on incretin-based and emerging obesity pharmacotherapies
• Real-world evidence on both weight and non-weight outcomes (e.g., cardiometabolic
markers, diet quality, lean mass, psychosocial well-being)
• Development and evaluation of adjunct lifestyle, nutritional, and behavioral interventions.
• Health policy and systems research on access, equity, cost-effectiveness, and reimbursement
• Patient and provider experiences, adherence, and lived perspectives
By collating state-of-the-art evidence, this collection will address the absence of structured
guidelines, expand knowledge beyond weight outcomes, and provide actionable insights for
integrating pharmacotherapy into holistic and equitable obesity management worldwide