Simple Online Pharmacy 2024 GLP-1 Weight Loss Survey - Methodology

The overarching goal of this study was to better understand our patients and thereby enhance our service, offering and patient care going forward. We were amazed by the collective weight loss of our patients of 120 metric tonnes, and the savings to the NHS of nearly £7m. We wanted to understand what else GLP-1 weight loss has done for those that had noticed material weight loss. We reached out specifically to those patients that had dropped a material BMI bracket, and surveyed them to understand:

  • What had motivated them to try GLP-1 weight care medications vs other methods they used
  • Why they had elected to go private vs the NHS, and the implications of that
  • How they have found sustaining their weight loss
  • Physical health improvements noticed by respondents
  • Mental health improvements noticed by respondents
  • Changes in attitude towards self and from others resulting from change in weight
  • Influences on developing healthy habits

It should be noted that this survey does not meet the conditions for a medical study. Whilst the overall responses have been reviewed by our clinical team, we cannot validate that each individual response that a patient submitted was correct and accurate. This survey is therefore purely a representation of patient opinion and observations on their own health.

The methodology chosen was implemented to obtain valid and reliable data. We sent the survey via email to 29,284 patients who have lost a significant amount of weight. For the purpose of this survey, “significant weight loss” was defined as a material drop in BMI brackets (from BMI of over 40 to below 40, from BMI of 35-40 to below 35, from BMI of 30-34 to below 30); we recently conducted the survey again for Wegovy patients, where we deemed a material drop in BMI to be greater than 10% drop.

The survey contained 40 questions, consisting of a mix of multiple choice questions and Likert scale questions. Within the multiple choice questions, there was a mix of single-answer-option and multiple-answer-option questions. Some multiple choice questions allowed patients to choose multiple options, whereas others questions only allowed one of the multiple options to be chosen.

The Likert scale questions put forward a statement and asked the respondent to select the extent to which they agreed, ranging from “strongly disagree” to “strongly agree”. The Likert scale questions allowed for a nuanced capture of subjective data, which in turn provides depth to the interpretation of the results.

To understand our patients better and ensure we control for BMI, we sent out the same survey questions in the same order to three separate cohorts initially. Choosing this approach allowed us to gain further insights into patients’ weight care journey and measure the impact of weight care on different BMI cohorts. The three cohorts are defined as follows:

  • BMI range: 30-34
  • BMI range: 35-40
  • BMI range: >40

We have purposely chosen these three brackets to align with recent studies which have calculated the incremental cost to the NHS per these three categories.

We then issued the same survey more recently to all patients that had started to take Wegovy, focussing on results for those patients where their BMI had reduced by more than 10%.

We received 519 responses from a population totaling 29,284, which gives a confidence level of 95% with a margin of error of 5%. Where we saw significant differences in responses between the BMI ranges, we have called this out.