Obesity puts a drag on the wallet as well as health, especially for women.
Doctors have long known that medical bills are higher for the obese, but that is only a portion of the real-life costs.
George Washington University researchers added in things like employee sick days, lost productivity, even the need for extra gasoline — and found the annual cost of being obese is $4,879 for a woman and $2,646 for a man.
That is far more than the cost of being merely overweight — $524 for women and $432 for men, concluded the report being released Tuesday, which analyzed previously published studies to come up with a total.
Why the difference between the sexes? Studies suggest larger women earn less than skinnier women, while wages don't differ when men pack on the pounds. That was a big surprise, said study co-author and health policy professor Christine Ferguson.
Doctors have long known that medical bills are higher for the obese, but that is only a portion of the real-life costs.
George Washington University researchers added in things like employee sick days, lost productivity, even the need for extra gasoline — and found the annual cost of being obese is $4,879 for a woman and $2,646 for a man.
That is far more than the cost of being merely overweight — $524 for women and $432 for men, concluded the report being released Tuesday, which analyzed previously published studies to come up with a total.
Why the difference between the sexes? Studies suggest larger women earn less than skinnier women, while wages don't differ when men pack on the pounds. That was a big surprise, said study co-author and health policy professor Christine Ferguson.
Researchers had expected everybody's wages to suffer with obesity, but "this indicates you're not that disadvantaged as a guy, from a wage perspective," said Ferguson, who plans to study why.
Then consider that obesity is linked to earlier death. While that is not something people usually consider a pocketbook issue, the report did average in the economic value of lost life. That brought women's annual obesity costs up to $8,365, and men's to $6,518.
The report was financed by one of the manufacturers of gastric banding, a type of obesity surgery.
Then consider that obesity is linked to earlier death. While that is not something people usually consider a pocketbook issue, the report did average in the economic value of lost life. That brought women's annual obesity costs up to $8,365, and men's to $6,518.
The report was financed by one of the manufacturers of gastric banding, a type of obesity surgery.
A major study published last year found medical spending averages $1,400 more a year for the obese than normal-weight people. Tuesday's report added mostly work-related costs — things like sick days and disability claims — related to those health problems.
It also included a quirky finding, a study that calculated nearly 1 billion additional gallons of gasoline (3.8 billion liters) are used every year because of increases in car passengers' weight since 1960.
It also included a quirky finding, a study that calculated nearly 1 billion additional gallons of gasoline (3.8 billion liters) are used every year because of increases in car passengers' weight since 1960.
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4 comments:
A good reason why insurers and people on gov. plans should be charged more for their coverage if they fail to meet certain criteria i.e. healthy blood sugar, cholesterol/lipids, blood pressure, BMI (modified for body type). Give discounts to healthy people.
Good reasponse 11:00 AM Anonymous. That's right up until they inact the next stage of health care. Genetic probablities and projections in health care. Then where will you fall? If your mother or father has a history of any disease, your gonna pay the freight, regardless of your present health. I see your point and it's valid, with the exception that Health Insurer's are constantly playing a shell game, a slight of hand, changing the rules, manipulation of the numbers, denial of benifits. The only truth in it all is the money they make. That's a constant and they accomplish that by a never ending constant state of double-talk, which only pits you against them, and while the you of you fight it out, they collect the bread. After they over charge the fat people, they'll be comin for the skinney ones, and if your not careful, soon they'll be comin for the suckers that bought into their rap. I'm listening to my 82 yo father and 81 yo mother talking all the time about dounut holes (high increases in their health care costs) due to reaching certain limits. Between them, they're laying out close to 2K a month over whatever they get from medicare. Do you think any of those on welfare have this kind of fiscal responsibility? And the only reason that they're hit so hard is becaused they saved and scrimped and did without a lifetime to have something to live on in their later years and now courtesy of our current government via health care and our new death taxes coming into effect soon, our government intends to take it all and give it to those poor little disenfranchised folks. Unable to work, forced to lay around all day druggin and sexin and watching the tube. Be careful who you side with these days, their all wearing masks because the truth is, they're thieves and liars lookin to get over.
By 2020 nearly 75% of Americans will be considered overweight/obese. Today, the state with the lowest % of fat citizens is higher then the highest % of fat citizens in 1990.
Has anyone looked around at how many fat people there are on the Eastern Shore? It is truly shocking.
Most admit to their love of food and most don't seem to care about their weight, health or appearance. Very sad.
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