Digital Obesity Care Reaches All Income Groups – But Financial Barriers Create Health Inequalities

New real-world data from over 40,000 patients show that digital obesity care produces significant and sustained weight loss even with low medication doses. The studies, presented at the European Congress on Obesity (ECO) 2026 in Istanbul, also reveal that finances are the single most common reason for treatment discontinuation, and that only 8 percent of low-income patients who are forced to stop their care later manage to resume it.

At this year’s ECO congress, Swedish Yazen Health is presenting two comprehensive studies (PO4.202 and PO4.209) based on data from over 40,000 patients across seven European countries. Together, they provide new insights into both the medical effectiveness and the socioeconomic barriers within modern obesity care.

Medical Milestone: 19 Percent Weight Loss with Half the Dose

The medical analysis (Willacy et al.) shows that Yazen’s multidisciplinary care model achieves outcomes comparable to clinical trials, but in a real-world clinical setting and with significantly lower doses:

• Sustainable Results: Patients achieved an average weight loss of nearly 19% after 24 months.
  
  
• Dose Optimisation: These results were achieved with doses that were, on average, less than half (<50%) of the maximum doses used in clinical trials.
  
  
• High Retention: 69% of patients remained in treatment after 12 months and 57% of patients remained in treatment after two years, a figure significantly higher than what has been reported in previous real-world studies.
  
  
• Metabolic Gains: In addition to weight loss, significant improvements were seen in waist circumference (-17.7 cm), blood sugar (HbA1c), and blood lipids.
  
  

Healthcare Professionals are the Largest Patient Group

The socioeconomic study (Sommerfeld et al.) challenges the myth that digital obesity care primarily reaches a limited group of high-income earners. The data shows that Yazen reaches a broad demographic:

• Income Distribution: 35% of patients are classified as low-income, 38% as middle-income, and 27% as high-income.
  
  
• Comparison: The proportion of low-income earners (35%) is substantially higher than the corresponding share in the general Swedish population (approx. 12% according to Statistics Sweden).
  
  
• Occupational Representation: The largest professional category is healthcare personnel (21.8%), of which 72.5% are nurses and nursing assistants.
  
  

Finances – A Barrier to Long-Term Health

Despite the treatment's high effectiveness, cost remains a critical barrier to continuity, particularly for those with the lowest incomes:

• Main Reason for Discontinuation: Finances are cited as the cause in 40.9% of cases where treatment is discontinued.
  
  
• Unequal Access: There is a dramatic difference in who can afford to return. While 61.6% of high-income earners resumed treatment after an interruption, the figure for low-income earners was only 8.2%.
  
  

"This data highlights a medical Catch-22. We see that the need for care is enormous across all levels of society, not least among healthcare professionals, but without subsidies, the medical outcome becomes a matter of private finances. This creates an unacceptable inequality in health," says Martin Carlsson, Associate Professor, Senior Physician in Endocrinology, and co-founder of Yazen.

‍

Presented Abstracts in full here:

• Willacy et al. ECO2026. Real-World Outcomes and Comparative Effectiveness of Tirzepatide, Semaglutide, and GLP-1 Therapy Switching in a Pan-European Single-Provider Digital Care Model
  
  
• Sommerfeld et al. ECO2026. Occupational Distribution in a Real-World Digital Obesity Care Population

For more information: Fredrik Pallin, VP Public Relations Yazen +46 708-114115 fredrik.pallin@yazen.com 

Yazen is a digital healthcare provider specialised in the treatment of obesity - a chronic disease that requires long-term care. We are currently active in eight markets: Sweden, Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Germany, and Spain. Our team consists of 290 employees, of which 220 work in clinical care - including 120 licensed physicians.

‍

Our unique model combines modern medications, continuous digital care, and support from a full healthcare team of your own physician and support from a full healthcare team of a health coach, dietitian, psychologist and physiotherapist. Research shows that this holistic approach leads to better and more sustainable outcomes than medication alone.

‍

More than 44,000 patients are in treatment right now and in total over 62,000 patients have lost over 760 tonnes altogether. 

‍

Yazen has been named ‘Weight Loss Treatment of the Year in Europe 2025’ by the international journal Healthcare Business Review, and also ranked as the second fastest-growing startup in Europe by The Sifted 250 Leaderboard.

Learn more at www.yazen.com