Most do not. In US commercial claims, 20.3% of 1,139 pediatric patients with obesity stayed on a GLP-1 steadily for 12 months [2]. Adults in the same data reached 30.7%. In Denmark, 38% of 12-to-24-year-olds still held a prescription a year after starting [1]. The adult version of this question, with the reasons adults give, is in how long people stay on a GLP-1.
The US claims figure
The US study drew on MarketScan commercial claims from 2021 to 2023. It included people aged 10 and up with obesity and without diabetes who started a GLP-1.
Adherence was measured as the share of days covered by a fill, month by month. A model then sorted patients into five trajectories. The pediatric groups came out roughly even, each holding about 18% to 22% of the cohort.
Persistent users were 20.3%. The rest stopped early, stopped late, or filled on and off. The authors call most adult and pediatric adherence suboptimal.
Region mattered. Pediatric patients in the Northeast had 1.65 times the odds of persistent use of those in the South.
The Danish registry figure
Denmark’s registries cover everyone aged 12 to 24 who filled a GLP-1 prescription from 2018 to 2025 [1]. New use rose more than 50-fold, to 418 per 100,000 by 2025.
Only 38% were covered by a prescription one year on. Covered means a prescription existed. It does not mean every dose was taken.
Two other figures sit beside it. A third of these young users had a psychiatric condition, and 78% of new treatments started in general practice. The authors ask for specialist involvement and careful evaluation of mental health. How prescribing spread to young people in the first place is covered in off-label GLP-1 prescribing.
What the clinic studies add
A Swiss pediatric clinic followed 22 adolescents on liraglutide, with visits every three months [3]. Mean treatment lasted 8.2 months. Thirteen stopped.
The stated reasons were insufficient weight loss and mild nausea. The authors call the discontinuation rate high and ask for better counseling before the first dose.
A Taiwanese study of 41 adolescents points the other way on one detail [4]. Over 26 weeks, no one stopped because of intolerance, and every adverse event was mild. Its wider results are in the Taiwan adolescent study. Side effects alone do not explain the drop-off.
What families say about stopping
Researchers in Pittsburgh interviewed 29 young people aged 12 to 22 and 23 caregivers [5]. Most caregivers were mothers.
Experiences were positive overall. Participants said the drugs reduced appetite and food noise. Parents carried much of the practical and emotional load.
The recurring doubt was about the endpoint. Families did not know when, or whether, to stop. The authors recommend shared decision-making that plans for discontinuation from the start.
What stopping means
In adults, weight returns after these drugs stop. Those figures are in how much weight comes back.
The reasons people give for stopping are set out in why people stop taking a GLP-1. Cost leads that list for adults.
For a family, the practical question is the plan for month thirteen. A year of payments that ends in a stop buys a year of effect, not a lasting one. What a month costs is in what a GLP-1 costs per month.