Healthcare expenses can be twice as high in morbidly obese individuals as compared to their normal-weight peers.
Healthcare costs get higher as the waistline grows bigger. Healthcare expenses can be twice as high in morbidly obese individuals as compared to their normal-weight peers.Researchers from the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine conducted a study to highlight the economic impact of this condition. They found that morbid obesity is an increasingly important health problem in the United States. An analysis shows that 10 per cent of all healthcare expenditures in US in the year 2000 were a total $56 billion, which were somehow linked to excess body weight. Twenty per cent of those costs were incurred by the nearly 5 million men and women considered to be morbidly obese.Morbidly obese individuals have a higher risk of sickness and death from diabetes, high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, cancer and various other chronic health conditions.
Fifty-eight per cent of the survey respondents were overweight or obese, including 2.8 per cent who fit the criteria for morbid obesity, defined as having a body mass index of 40 or higher or weighing at least 100 pounds over their ideal body weight. Healthcare expenses in the morbidly obese were 81 percent higher, or $1,975 greater, than that in normal-weight adults and 65 percent higher than that in overweight adults.The survey respondents' healthcare expenditures seemed to increase along with their increasing levels of obesity. Among overweight adults, 9 per cent of per capita expenditures was associated with excess body weight, compared with 19 per cent among those with class I obesity and 45 percent among severely obese adults.
If morbid obesity continues to increase over the next decade, obesity associated healthcare expenditures will likely rise at an alarming rate.
The prevalence of morbid obesity is increasing twice as fast as obesity. In the year 2000, 2.2 per cent of the US population was morbidly obese, which was 0.78 per cent higher than what it was 10 years ago.Researchers analysed the data for more than 16,000 adults involved in a nationwide medical expenditure survey. The expenditures included office and hospital based care, dental services, vision aids and prescription medications.
Fifty-eight per cent of the survey respondents were overweight or obese, including 2.8 per cent who fit the criteria for morbid obesity, defined as having a body mass index of 40 or higher or weighing at least 100 pounds over their ideal body weight. Healthcare expenses in the morbidly obese were 81 percent higher, or $1,975 greater, than that in normal-weight adults and 65 percent higher than that in overweight adults.The survey respondents' healthcare expenditures seemed to increase along with their increasing levels of obesity. Among overweight adults, 9 per cent of per capita expenditures was associated with excess body weight, compared with 19 per cent among those with class I obesity and 45 percent among severely obese adults.
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International Journal of Obesity,
February 2005
February 2005
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