Medical Costs of Obesity, Yearly, Per Person: $1,723
The direct yearly medical cost of being obese in the U.S. is $1,723 per obese person, according to a just-released report in Obesity Reviews. Being overweight is a relative bargain at $266.
These numbers translate into $114 billion yearly, or five to 10 percent of total healthcare spending.
Not included in the numbers are costs such as lost productivity due to obesity-related illness and replacement or repair of items that wear out or break due to excessive amounts of physical stress. Not to mention pain and suffering.
Are you overweight or obese? Find out with an online body mass index calculator.
Want to do anything about it? See my “Prepare for Weight Loss” series.
Reference: Tsai, A.G., et al. Direct Medical Cost of Obesity in the U.S.A. Obesity Reviews, online January 6, 2009. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-789x.2009.00708.x
January 9th, 2010 at 8:16 am
I see these numbers live and in action every night during my work as a respiratory therapist. It’s not just the diabetes that we hear so much about in the news. It’s the folks we can’t get off the vent following surgery, and the folks with chronic lung diseases and extra body fat (like me) who aren’t doing their lungs any favors by carrying around extra weight pressing against their diaphragms, or the folks who get pneumonia, just pneumonia (that seems like it shouldn’t be life-threatening in this day and age), who end up on mechanical ventilation, then with a tracheostomy, and then sometimes in a rehab hospital, all as a direct result of obesity. If it weren’t for my job, I wouldn’t be so acutely aware of how much and how little those numbers and those studies say.
January 9th, 2010 at 10:03 am
I see that reality every workday also, Glenna. Especially in terms of type 2 diabetes. I wouldn’t be surprised if 40% of my hospitalized patients have T2DM.
Thanks for your “real world” comments.
-Steve
January 9th, 2010 at 11:13 am
The more I think about this issue, the more I’ve realized that it’s choice, albeit unconscious that people make. Most people really would rather be given a pill down the road (future cost) in exchange for eating what they want and avoiding exercise (immediate gratification). It’s a luxury that we’re willing to foot the bill for, just like paying someone to mow your yard or cook your dinner at a restaurant. I don’t think this will change much either until A) people start becoming more responsible for their healthcare costs (hitting people in the wallet is a great motivator) or B) healthcare begins to become rationed and patients have to choose between lifestyle choice or nothing. Unfortunately, we seem to be moving towards B.