Read AMA Morning Rounds®’ most popular stories in medicine and public health from the week of Sept. 7, 2026–Sept. 11, 2026.
GLP-1 prescriptions have risen more than 300-fold among children under 12
Reuters (9/4, Singh, Sunny) reports that a study published in Pediatrics shows “prescriptions for GLP-1 weight-loss drugs among children under 12 in the U.S. have risen more than 300-fold since 2019.” According to researchers, “94% of the children prescribed GLP-1s had severe obesity, and about 65% had at least one related condition, such as high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and sleep apnea.”
MedPage Today (9/4, Monaco) reports that among more than 3.5 million children ages 8 to 11, “annual prescribing of GLP-1 drugs—including tirzepatide (Zepbound), semaglutide (Wegovy), and liraglutide (Saxenda)—increased from 0.03% in 2019 to 9.3% in 2026 (P<0.001).” Nonetheless, “overall prescribing remained low. Just 20,282 children with obesity (0.6%) received a GLP-1 prescription across the entire study period.”
Patients trust fake physician reviews more than genuine reviews
Medical Economics (9/4, Littrell) reports, “Fake physician reviews collected more helpful votes and scored higher on perceived trustworthiness than genuine patient reviews, according to a study of 5,000 online physician reviews.” Researchers found that fake reviews generally “were longer, and they said more about symptoms, diagnoses, medications and treatment. Genuine reviewers rarely offer that much.” The findings were published in Internet Research.
Menopausal hormone therapy may have heart benefits for some women with vasomotor symptoms
MedPage Today (9/8, Robertson) reports, “Menopausal hormone therapy (MHT) may have heart benefits for some women with vasomotor symptoms, though effects vary by timing of initiation and race, a target trial emulation of observational data suggested.” Investigators found that “among perimenopausal and recently postmenopausal women with no history of cardiovascular disease (CVD), initiation of MHT was associated with a 22% reduction in CVD events (adjusted HR 0.78, 95% CI 0.62-0.98).” The data also indicated that “those who initiated MHT within 10 years of menopause onset were estimated to have a 27% reduction in CVD risk (aHR 0.73, 95% CI 0.58-0.93), but there was no benefit when MHT was initiated more than 10 years after menopause onset (aHR 1.53, 95% CI 0.66-3.52).” The findings were published in JAMA Internal Medicine.
Borderline anemia associated with higher risk of mortality
MedPage Today (9/9, Bassett) reports, “Borderline anemia was associated with a higher risk of mortality in a prospective cohort study, according to researchers.” The investigators found that “among adults with borderline anemia—hemoglobin levels 0 to 1 g/dL above the WHO threshold for anemia—the 10-year standardized cumulative incidence of all-cause mortality was 18% higher compared with a reference group.” According to researchers, “when stratifying results by age and sex, borderline anemia was associated with higher risks for all-cause, cardiovascular, and cancer mortality in men of all ages and in women 60 and older, ‘and this pattern persisted after adjusting for a broad range of [cardiovascular] risk factors and comorbidities.’” The findings were published in Annals of Internal Medicine.
Popular supplements could be harmful to aging brain
The Washington Post (9/10, Cha) reports recent studies are “raising a largely overlooked question: Can something that benefits (or is at least neutral to) a young, healthy brain become less helpful – or even harmful—as the brain ages?” One study published in BMJ Open earlier this year found that older adults using vitamin D supplements “had slightly faster declines in overall cognition and executive function over six years. This link applied only to people who already had normal vitamin D levels, but not those who had deficient or insufficient levels.” A second study published in the Journal of Prevention of Alzheimer’s Disease compared 273 older adults using omega-3 “with 546 nonusers, with a median follow-up of five years and found that those who used omega-3 supplements experienced faster cognitive decline on three standardized clinical scales.”
You may also be interested in: What does healthy aging look like?
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