Persistence of Weekly Injectable Semaglutide Use in Patients with Diabetes Mellitus and Obesity: A Retrospective Follow-Up in Colombia

Semaglutide is an effective antidiabetic agent that is injected weekly to induce weight reduction, and the impact on cardiovascular outcomes is favorable.

The aim was to evaluate the persistence of the use of weekly injectable semaglutide in Colombia for 12 months among new users.

A retrospective longitudinal follow-up study of a cohort of patients with a new prescription of weekly injectable semaglutide between January and December 2022 and persistence for 365 days was evaluated. Kaplan‒Meier survival analyses were performed to evaluate the survival effect of semaglutide.

In total, 9356 new users of semaglutide were identified. The average age of the users was 61.6 ± 12.9 years, the main diagnoses were type 2 diabetes mellitus (43.8%) and obesity (41.8%), and 90.8% of them received the 0.25/0.5-mg dose. The mean duration of use was 93.7 ± 76.3 days, but only 13.8% and 0.2% of patients continued the treatment at 6 and 12 months of follow-up, respectively. In total, 35.4% had a prescription for a single month. The other concomitant antidiabetic drugs used were metformin (43.5%), sodium glucose-2 cotransporter inhibitors (38.3%) and insulin (18.2%).

Most of the patients started semaglutide at the suggested doses to continue with staging; however, the persistence of use was low, which may be related to difficulties in access, education on application methods, drug tolerability, and lack of follow-up by the clinician.