Semaglutide once a week in adults with overweight or obesity, with or without type 2 diabetes in an east Asian population (STEP 6): a randomised, double-blind, double-dummy, placebo-controlled, phase 3a trial

What Was Tested

Researchers studied Semaglutide in this randomized controlled trial publication.

Differences exist between Asian and non-Asian populations in terms of body composition and definitions of obesity.

In the Semaglutide Treatment Effect in People with obesity (STEP) 6 trial, the researchers assessed the effect of semaglutide versus placebo for weight management in adults from east Asia with obesity, with or without type 2 diabetes.

Who Took Part

By PubMed's age tags, the people studied were teenagers and adults.

Eligible participants were adults (aged ≥18 years in South Korea; ≥20 years in Japan) with a BMI of at least 27·0 kg/m2 with two or more weight-related comorbidities or a BMI of 35·0 kg/m2 or more with one or more weight-related comorbidity (one comorbidity had to be either hypertension, dyslipidaemia, or, in Japan only, type 2 diabetes) who had at least one self-reported unsuccessful dietary attempt to lose bodyweight.

Change in abdominal visceral fat area was assessed as a supportive secondary endpoint using computed tomography scanning in a subset of participants.

How the Study Was Run

In design terms this was a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study.

The participants were allocated by chance, so the Semaglutide group and the comparison group should start out alike.

Neither the participants nor the staff measuring them knew who was on Semaglutide, so expectations could not easily colour the readings.

The comparison arm used a placebo, so changes seen with Semaglutide could be set against what happens without it.

Data for the placebo groups were pooled in statistical analyses.

This trial was registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT03811574.

What Was Measured

In the Semaglutide Treatment Effect in People with obesity (STEP) 6 trial, the researchers assessed the effect of semaglutide versus placebo for weight management in adults from east Asia with obesity, with or without type 2 diabetes.

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2, Glucagon-Like Peptides, Hypoglycemic Agents, Obesity, Overweight and Semaglutide.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of Semaglutide.

Its findings take up roughly 7 sentences of the abstract and are left out here on purpose; the source paper is the place to read them.

The publication is from 2022 (The lancet. Diabetes & endocrinology), a journal based in England.

More context: the Semaglutide compound page, all human trials.