J Obes Metab Syndr.  2022 Sep;31(3):254-262. 10.7570/jomes22029.

Adherence to and Dropout from Liraglutide 3.0 mg Obesity Treatment in a Real-World Setting

• Ko HJ
• Kim JW
• Lim S

• KMID: 2534002
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.7570/jomes22029

Abstract

Background
The factors associated with non-adherence to obesity treatment using liraglutide 3.0 mg in a real-world setting remain elusive.
Methods
We performed a secondary data analysis of 769 participants treated with liraglutide 3.0 mg from December 2017 to June 2020 at nine Korean hospitals. Data were collected 2, 4, and 6 months after treatment initiation. Adherence groups were defined as <2, 2–4, 4–6, and ≥6 months.
Results
Among the 769 patients, 539 (70.1%) were lost to follow-up within 6 months because of unknown reasons (54.2%), adverse events (14.8%), change of treatment (13.7%), or discontinuation due to poor weight loss (9.3%). Dropout at 6 months was significantly associated with the presence of diabetes mellitus in step 1 and the presence of diabetes mellitus with regular exercise in step 2 of the logistic regression analysis using the forward stepwise selection method. After adjusting for covariates, the presence of diabetes mellitus (odds ratio [OR], 0.25; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.10–0.63; OR, 0.47; 95% CI, 0.31–0.73; and OR, 0.52; 95% CI, 0.34–0.80) and regular exercise (OR, 2.86; 95% CI, 1.31–6.23; OR, 2.09; 95% CI, 1.26–3.48; and OR, 2.99; 95% CI, 1.81–4.92) showed significant associations in the <2, 2–4, and 4–6 groups compared with the highest adherence group (≥6 months).
Conclusion
Non-adherence to obesity treatment with liraglutide is related to regular exercise and absence of diabetes mellitus. Further prospective studies are warranted to increase medication adherence in those groups.

Keyword

Diabetes mellitus; Exercise; Lost to follow-up; Liraglutide; Medication adherence