The number of U.S. military service members on weight-loss drugs have jumped nearly 100-fold since 2018, according to a recent analysis of Defense Department data.
On Thursday, Stars and Stripes, an independent military publication, reported on the study posted in the Medical Surveillance Monthly Report, a peer-reviewed journal for the armed forces. According to the latest report out in January, the prevalence of weight-loss drug prescriptions for U.S. military personnel skyrocketed from 1.2 per 100,000 servicemembers in 2018 to 104.4 per 100,000 members in June 2023.
“Use of weight loss medications will likely continue to increase due to the ongoing obesity epidemic in the U.S.,” researchers noted, with obesity among the armed forces already on the rise. The prevalence of obesity jumped from just more than 16 percent among full-time active service members to nearly 19 percent in 2021. Roughly 67 percent of the U.S. adult population aged 18 and older were qualified as either obese or overweight in 2021, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).
The CDC estimates the Pentagon spends about $1.5 billion in obesity-related health costs and loses 658,000 work days due to it each year. In 2018, the Department of Defense authorized the use of four weight-loss drugs due to the crisis within the military’s ranks.
U.S. lockdowns accelerated the pace of weight gain with nearly 10,000 Army service members emerging obese, according to the Associated Press last spring. Military prescriptions for weight-loss drugs went from 7 in January 2018 to 816 in
