SOURCE-LINKED STUDY SUMMARY
Effect of Continued Weekly Subcutaneous Semaglutide vs Placebo on Weight Loss Maintenance in Adults With Overweight or Obesity: The STEP 4 Randomized Clinical Trial.
Abstract summarizedQuality not appraised
- What was studied
- Randomized withdrawal trial comparing continued semaglutide with switching to placebo, with lifestyle intervention in both groups.
- Who / model studied
- 803 adults with overweight or obesity and no diabetes entered a 48-week comparison after a 20-week semaglutide run-in.
- Studied dose & schedule
- Dose and schedule have not yet been extracted for this summary.
- What the study found
- After initial weight loss of 10.6%, weight fell another 7.9% with continued semaglutide but rose 6.9% after switching to placebo. Confirmatory secondary measures of waist size, blood pressure and physical functioning also improved. Digestive events occurred in 49.1% versus 26.1%; adverse-event treatment withdrawals were similar, 2.4% versus 2.2%.
- Limitations & context
- Only participants who reached the maintenance dose during the initial treatment period were randomized.
Read summary source ↗ · Prepared 9/16/2026 · AI-assisted, source-based summary
Review record & corrections
Summary prepared: . Source scope: abstract. This is an AI-assisted source summary, not an independent clinician sign-off.
No public field-by-field revision history is available for this card yet. The date above is the summary date, not proof that every field was updated then.
Inspect the source · Correction policyResearch findings apply to the population and conditions studied. This educational summary is not a treatment recommendation or a formal assessment of study quality.
Original publication ↗ · DOI: 10.1001/jama.2021.3224