Children taking GLP-1s can be at risk of nutritional deficiencies, study finds

Around one in six children taking glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1s) experiences a nutritional deficiency within the first year of treatment, according to the results of a US study.

Publishing their findings in Childhood Obesity on 17 September 2026, researchers analysed data from 2,031 patients in the United States aged between 10 years and 17 years, who had been started on GLP-1 therapy and had no prior history of nutritional deficiency.

Of these patients, nearly two thirds (62.6%, n=1,271) had obesity, more than two-thirds (67.2%, n=1,365) had a diagnosis of type 2 diabetes mellitus, a small proportion (5.1%, n=104) had prediabetes, and more than one-quarter (27.7%, n=563) had no recorded diabetes diagnosis.

The patients’ mean age was 15 years, while nearly two-thirds (61.5%, n=1,249) of participants were female. Liraglutide was the most commonly initiated GLP-1RA (78.6%) during the study, followed by dulaglutide (10.4%) and semaglutide (9.1%).