GLP-1 Nutritional Deficiencies Found in Kids on Weight-Loss Drugs

Doctors are prescribing GLP-1 drugs to more children than ever. Now a new study on GLP-1 nutritional deficiencies finds that nearly one in six young patients were diagnosed with a nutritional deficiency within a year of starting treatment, according to research published in the journal Childhood Obesity.

The analysis, led by researchers from Abbott Nutrition and Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago, examined national insurance claims covering more than 100 million patients from 2017 through 2022. From that data, the team found 2,031 children aged 10 to 17 who had started a GLP-1 medication, carried continuous health coverage, and had no recorded nutritional deficiency beforehand. About 62.6 percent of them had obesity. Liraglutide was by far the most common prescription, going to 78.6 percent of the children, followed by dulaglutide at 10.4 percent and semaglutide at 9.1 percent.

Within six months of starting treatment, 10.2 percent of the children had been diagnosed with at least one nutritional deficiency or related complication. By the end of the first year, the figure reached 16.8 percent. Vitamin D deficiency was the most frequent of the GLP-1 nutritional deficiencies recorded, affecting 12.4 percent of the children. Nutritional anemia showed up in 1.55 percent of patients, and iron-deficiency anemia in 1.44 percent. Doctors who treat kids on these drugs say those numbers make GLP-1 nutritional deficiencies a realistic expectation to plan for, not a rare fluke.

The researchers stress that their work was descriptive. The study does not establish that GLP-1 drugs directly caused the deficiencies, and it could not fully account for differences between the children who were tested for nutritional problems and those who were not. When reading about GLP-1 nutritional deficiencies, that distinction matters: testing itself is what turns a low nutrient level into a diagnosis.

The counseling gap that worries doctors

Nutrition support was rare and slow to arrive. Only 5 percent of the children received nutritional counseling within 30 days of starting a GLP-1 drug. Within six months, 23.3 percent had seen someone for nutrition therapy, and the average wait for a first visit was 149 days. For a drug whose whole purpose is shrinking appetites, that delay looks like a missing piece of basic care, and closing it could be the simplest way to keep GLP-1 nutritional deficiencies from taking hold.

"As appropriate pediatric use of GLP-1s becomes more widespread, we need to understand the risks during periods of rapid growth and pubertal development," said senior author Justin Ryder, PhD, vice chair of research for the Department of Surgery at Lurie Children's and an associate professor of surgery and pediatrics at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.

Adolescence is a stretch of rapid growth and physical change, when the body needs steady nutrients to support bone health. "Nutrients such as vitamin D, iron and calcium are of particular concern during adolescence, when deficiencies may have lasting implications for skeletal health and overall development," Ryder said in a statement accompanying the findings. HealthDay's coverage of the study, also carried by Medical Dialogues, notes the analysis was published online Sept. 17 and drew on Inovalon claims data, a dataset insurers use to track diagnoses across the country.

Why this matters for families weighing treatment

GLP-1 drugs mimic a gut hormone that helps control insulin and blood sugar, curbs appetite, and slows digestion. That appetite suppression is the point of the treatment, and it is also where the nutrition risk comes from: a child who eats much less may not take in enough energy, protein, and micronutrients from meals alone. Teenagers face a particular version of this problem, since skipped meals and erratic eating patterns are already common at that age, and the drug layers a real loss of appetite on top of habits that are already patchy. That is the mechanism researchers believe drives most GLP-1 nutritional deficiencies in young patients.

Ryder's team argues that nutritional support should begin alongside the prescription, not after a deficiency is found. "We hope that our study findings bring much needed recognition to the importance of proactive nutritional management when GLP-1s are prescribed to children, as opposed to waiting until a nutritional deficiency is diagnosed," he said. For readers tracking our health coverage, this is the second major nutrition-related finding in our Health reporting this month, alongside research showing how everyday habits quietly shape long-term outcomes.

The study was first reported by News-Medical, and its takeaway is practical rather than alarmist: a dietitian visit and basic bloodwork alongside the prescription could catch GLP-1 nutritional deficiencies early, while the evidence is not strong enough to tell families to avoid a drug that is helping with obesity or diabetes. For parents, the reasonable move is to ask the prescribing doctor about nutrition monitoring before the first prescription is filled, and to keep that checkup on the schedule as treatment continues. And if you are catching up on the site's health stories, our earlier reporting on preventive care covers another study with a straightforward takeaway: get checked before GLP-1 nutritional deficiencies have a chance to set in.