Nearly 1 in 6 Kids on GLP-1s Developed This Problem Within a Year - Gizmodo

Research from Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and collaborators found that nearly one in six children and teens on GLP-1 medications developed a new nutritional deficiency within a year of starting the drugs.
The study, published last week in the journal Childhood Obesity, analyzed claims data from about 2,000 patients ages 10 to 17 who began a GLP-1 between 2017 and 2022 and had no preexisting deficiency on record.
Roughly 17% were diagnosed with a deficiency or related complication within a year, with vitamin D deficiency the most common at 12%, followed by nutritional anemia at 1.55% and iron-deficiency anemia at 1.44%.
GLP-1 drugs such as semaglutide (Ozempic and Wegovy) and tirzepatide (Mounjaro and Zepbound) have become effective options for obesity and type 2 diabetes, a pressing concern given that about 22% of adolescents ages 12 to 19 and 21% of children ages 6 to 11 are obese, per CDC data.
Because this is an observational study covering a period before wider pediatric use, researchers cannot prove the medications directly caused the deficiencies, though intentional weight loss generally raises deficiency risk and other studies have linked GLP-1 use to nutrition-related problems.
The authors highlighted possible gaps in follow-up care, noting only about 5% of patients received dietary counseling within 30 days and only a quarter within six months, and urged doctors to monitor the nutritional health of children prescribed these treatments.