Obesity epidemic in the US large economic impact

Abstract

Excess body weight is associated with higher healthcare costs across a wide range of ages and body mass index (BMI) levels in the US, with particularly high costs for people with severe obesity. These are the main findings of a study that used a continuous costing approach to estimate BMI-related healthcare expenditures by age and sex in the US using data from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) 2011–2016. Data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) were employed to adjust reported BMI in MEPS for self-report bias. The analysis of data from 175 726 respondents (139 143 adults and 36 583 children aged 6–19 years) showed a Jshaped curve of medical expenditures by BMI for adults, with higher costs for females. The lowest predicted medical costs were observed at a BMI of 20.5 for adult females and 23.5 for adult males for all ages. Above a BMI of 30, predicted costs continued to increase linearly, with each one-unit increase in BMI associated with an additional cost of $US253 per person on average (year 2019 value). Obesity was associated with $US1861 excess annual medical costs per person, accounting for $US172.74 billion of annual expenditures. Severe obesity was associated with excess costs of $US3097 per adult. Among children, obesity was associated with $US116 excess costs per person and $US1.32 billion of medical spending, with severe obesity associated with $US310 excess costs per child. Policies to prevent excess weight gain at all ages are needed to mitigate the health and economic impact of the obesity epidemic, suggest the researchers.