Obese twentysomethings — those 30 or more pounds overweight — will have lifetime medical bills that are $5,000 to $21,000 higher than their normal-weight peers.
And extremely obese young adults — those 70 or more pounds overweight — will incur $15,000 to $29,000 more in lifetime medical expenditures than their healthy-weight peers, according to a study in the journal Obesity, published in advance online.
The data add to mounting evidence that obese people have significantly higher medical costs. About a third of people living in the United States are obese, which puts them at an increased risk of type 2 diabetes, heart disease, some types of cancer and other diseases.
More Days Off
“We have prior work that shows that obese people miss more days of work and have a lower quality of life,” says lead author Eric Finkelstein, an economist with RTI International, a nonprofit research organization in Research Triangle Park, N.C.
For the latest study, he and colleagues analyzed national data on medical expenditures and life expectancy. They found that the greater the weight, the higher the medical costs.
And medical expenditures are much greater in obese white women than obese black women. One possible reason: White women tend to use more health services.
Obese people have shorter life spans, but they still have much higher lifetime medical costs.
Gary Foster, president of the Obesity Society, an organization of weight-control researchers and professionals, says, “There has to be two-prong approach: Weight-control services for employees and policy changes at work that make the difficult task of weight control easier for employees.”
Finkelstein says companies should consider serving foods lower in fats and sugar in cafeterias and vending machines, offering financial incentives for losing weight and subsidizing gym memberships.
Roland Sturm, a Rand Corp. senior economist who has done several studies on obesity’s cost and its impact on quality of life, says low-tech changes, such as pleasant staircases and easy pedestrian/bicycle access, are promising. “But it doesn’t take much to discourage somebody from taking the staircase or trying to ride a bike,” he added.
