Shifts in waist-to-height ratio categories within tirzepatide groups: a post-hoc analysis of SURMOUNT-1

What Was Tested

This randomized controlled trial paper looks at Tirzepatide.

To evaluate shifts in waist-to-height ratio (WHtR) categories among adults with obesity or overweight, with or without prediabetes, treated with tirzepatide in the SURMOUNT-1 study.

Who Took Part

The abstract describes 2,538 participants taking part.

PubMed indexes the participants as adults and middle-aged adults, both men and women.

This post hoc analysis included 2,538 participants from the SURMOUNT-1 Phase 3, double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial.

Participants were grouped by baseline WHtR (≤ 0.49, > 0.49 to ≤ 0.59, > 0.59) according to the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) framework.

How the Study Was Run

The design is described as randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled.

Random assignment meant chance, not the researchers, decided who got Tirzepatide and who got the comparison, which limits bias.

Blinding on both sides kept the participants and researchers unaware of who received Tirzepatide.

Some participants received a placebo instead of Tirzepatide, giving a reference point.

Participants with prediabetes at baseline had additional follow-up data beyond week 72, and shifts in their WHtR categories at week 176 were also included.

Change from baseline in WHtR was analyzed using a mixed model for repeated measures (MMRM).

Shift tables were used to summarize changes from baseline to post-baseline WHtR category levels.

What Was Measured

The subject headings attached to it are Tirzepatide, Obesity, Waist-Height Ratio, Overweight, Prediabetic State and Body Mass Index.

The authors tagged it with the keywords Cardiometabolic risk, SURMOUNT-1, Waist circumference and Waist-to-height ratio.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of Tirzepatide in 2,538 participants.

With several hundred people or more, it is a fairly large study for this kind of research.

Results are reported in around 6 sentences of the abstract; we leave them to the paper itself rather than summarise them.

The publication is from 2026 (Journal of endocrinological investigation), a journal based in Italy.

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