Semaglutide for cardiovascular event reduction in people with overweight or obesity: SELECT study baseline characteristics

Objective: This paper describes the baseline characteristics of the Semaglutide Effects on Heart Disease and Stroke in Patients with Overweight or Obesity (SELECT) study, one of the largest cardiovascular (CV) outcome studies in the field of obesity, which evaluates the effect of semaglutide versus placebo on major CV events. Methods: SELECT enrolled individuals with overweight or obesity without diabetes, with prior myocardial infarction, stroke, and/or peripheral artery disease. This study reports participants' baseline characteristics in the full study population and subgroups defined by baseline glycated hemoglobin (HbA_1c; <5.7%, ≥5.7 to <6.0%, ≥6.0 to <6.5%), baseline waist to height ratio tertile, and qualifying prior CV event or condition. Results: The study enrolled 17,605 participants (72.5% male) with an average (SD) age of 61.6 (8.9) years and BMI of 33.34 (5.04) kg/m². The most common prior CV event was myocardial infarction (76.3% of participants), followed by stroke (23.3%) and peripheral artery disease (8.6%). Furthermore, 24.3% had a heart failure diagnosis. Two-thirds of participants (66%) had HbA_1c in the prediabetes range (5.7%-6.4%). Across groups of increasing HbA_1c, prevalence of all CV risk factors increased. Conclusions: The enrolled population in SELECT includes participants across a broad range of relevant risk categories. This will allow the study to garner information about the CV benefits of semaglutide across these relevant clinical subgroups.