Medical costs related to obesity in America may be as high as $147 billion a year, according to a new study published online in the journal Health Affairs.
Researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Research Triangle Institute worked on the study, which found that the proportion of all annual medical costs related to obesity—including payment by Medicare, Medicaid, private insurers and prescription drug spending—increased to 9.1% in 2006 from 6.5% in 1998. Also, people who are obese spent $1,429 more, or about 42% more, than people of normal weight.
The study, Annual Medical Spending Attributable to Obesity: Payer- and Service-Specific Estimates, was released at the CDC's Weight of the Nation conference in Washington. Also, the CDC released a set of recommendations to prevent obesity in the U.S.
“Obesity is a risk for a number of chronic diseases, including diabetes, cardiovascular disease and some cancers,” said William Dietz, director of the CDC's Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity and Obesity, in a news release. “Reversing this epidemic requires a multifaceted and coordinated approach that uses policy and environmental change to transform communities into places that support and promote healthy lifestyle choices for all people.”