Home | Business News | Browse by Publication | P | Public Interest

The economics of obesity.

Article Excerpt
HARDLY a day goes by that we do not read about the dire consequences of the increase in obesity. In March, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention predicted that obesity will overtake smoking as the leading cause of preventable deaths in the United States by next year if current trends continue. "This is a tragedy," Julie Gerberding, director of the Centers, told the Washington Post. "We're looking at this as a wakeup call." The obesity problem is real, Gerberding's melodrama notwithstanding, and seems to be worsening each year. The percentage of adults who are obese has doubled since the late 1970s, and tripled among children. From increases in the size of coffins, to increases in the size of pets, to the appearance of new diets and new surgical techniques to lose weight, and to a patent for an in-car system for dieters that weighs them and tells them when they have strayed, the evidence of America's obesity problem is everywhere.

Obesity and sedentary lifestyles accounted for approximately 400,000 deaths in 2000 compared to 435,000 from cigarette smoking, 100,000 from alcohol abuse, and 20,000 from illegal drug use. Obesity costs more in annual medical care expenditures than cigarette smoking--around $75 billion in 2003--because of the long and costly treatments for its complications. A large percentage of these costs are borne by Medicare, Medicaid, private health-insurance companies, and ultimately by the population at large rather than by the obese. The so-called "cheeseburger bill" to curb lawsuits against the fast-food industry, which passed the House of Representatives in March, might fend off at least some new costs to the non-obese for the obesity problem, but these costs have grown by more than 3 percent per year during the past few years and show no signs of stopping. To make matters worse, Americans spend $33 billion annually on weight reduction products. There are often serious health risks associated with some of these products, which can further increase the costs of obesity.

Obesity is measured by the body mass index (BMI), defined as weight in kilograms divided by height in meters squared (kg/[m.sup.2]). To calculate body mass index using pounds and inches, multiply weight in pounds by 704.5, then divide the result by height in inches, and divide that result by height in inches a second time. According to the World Health Organization and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, a BMI value of between 20 and 22 is "ideal" for adults regardless of gender in the sense that mortality and morbidity risks are minimized in this range. Persons with a BMI greater than or equal to 30 are classified as obese. An overweight child (the term "obese" is reserved for adults)...

View this article FREE - Now for a Limited Time, try Goliath Business News
Free for 3 Days!