Major evidence of the GLP-1 analog (liraglutide) in the treatment of obesity: a systematic review

Abstract

Introduction: Obesity is a chronic disease that affects a significant portion of the population. In Brazil, in the surveillance survey of risk and protective factors for diseases, more than half of the Brazilian population, 55.7% are overweight. Objective: A systematic review of the literature was carried out with the primary objective of verifying the effectiveness of weight loss of liraglutide in obesity, the secondary objective is the evaluation and clinical benefits secondary to the medication. Methods: The systematic review rules of the PRISMA Platform were followed. The research was carried out from September to October 2022 in Scopus, PubMed, Science Direct, Scielo, and Google Scholar databases. The quality of the studies was based on the GRADE instrument and the risk of bias was analyzed according to the Cochrane instrument. Results: A total of 84 articles were found, 52 articles were evaluated and 20 were included in this systematic review. Considering the Cochrane tool for risk of bias, the overall assessment resulted in 8 studies with a high risk of bias and 19 studies that did not meet GRADE. Most studies showed homogeneity in their results, with X2 =96.9% >50%. In this context of a serious disease with a high prevalence in the population, a literature review was carried out to verify the effectiveness of weight loss of liraglutide 3.0mg in obesity. A total of 781 works were found, of which all titles and abstracts were individually evaluated and sixteen related to the clinical question and PICOS were selected. Primary studies show the superiority of liraglutide over placebo and orlistat in weight loss and improvements in clinical outcomes. Conclusion: Liraglutide 3.0mg proved to be a safe and effective option in the treatment of obesity.