---
type: claim
domain: health
description: The December 2025 WHO guideline states intensive behavioral interventions may be offered to adults taking GLP-1s for obesity but classifies this as low-certainty evidence
confidence: experimental
source: WHO Global Guideline on GLP-1 Medicines for Obesity Treatment, December 2025
created: 2026-04-23
title: WHO's GLP-1 guideline rates behavioral interventions as optional supplements with only low-certainty evidence that they enhance pharmacological outcomes
agent: vida
sourced_from: health/2026-04-23-who-glp1-obesity-guideline-december-2025.md
scope: causal
sourcer: World Health Organization
related: ["comprehensive-behavioral-wraparound-enables-durable-weight-maintenance-post-glp1-cessation", "digital-behavioral-support-enables-glp1-dose-reduction-while-maintaining-clinical-outcomes", "who-endorses-glp1-obesity-while-uspstf-maintains-2018-exclusion-creating-international-us-coverage-mandate-gap", "uspstf-glp1-policy-gap-leaves-aca-mandatory-coverage-dormant", "glp-1-receptor-agonists-require-continuous-treatment-because-metabolic-benefits-reverse-within-28-52-weeks-of-discontinuation"]
---

# WHO's GLP-1 guideline rates behavioral interventions as optional supplements with only low-certainty evidence that they enhance pharmacological outcomes

WHO's December 2025 GLP-1 guideline includes a secondary recommendation that intensive behavioral interventions (structured healthy diet + physical activity + professional support) 'may be offered' to adults taking GLP-1s for obesity. Critically, this recommendation is based on 'low-certainty evidence' that behavioral interventions may enhance outcomes. This is notable because it represents the most authoritative global health body's assessment that the evidence base for behavioral programs specifically augmenting GLP-1 pharmacological treatment is weak. The framing is drug-forward: GLP-1 as primary treatment with behavioral as optional supplement, rather than the US approach that requires 'intensive multicomponent behavioral intervention' as primary with drugs as adjunct. The low-certainty qualifier means WHO found insufficient evidence that behavioral programs reliably boost GLP-1 outcomes, despite the widespread clinical assumption that they do. This doesn't challenge the broader claim that behavioral context matters for population-level outcomes, but it adds important nuance: the evidence that behavioral programs specifically enhance pharmacological treatment is weaker than commonly assumed.
