Bigger bodies increase medical cost, reduce days at work
By Aaron Levin, Staff Writer
Health Behavior News Service
Higher body mass index, a measure of weight in proportion to height, predicted higher healthcare costs and greater absenteeism among the workers, says Timothy Bungum, Dr.P.H., and colleagues, writing in the American Journal of Health Behavior.
Obese employees were also absent an average of an extra day every year and were half as likely to be absent for less that four hours per year as normal BMI workers.
While the response rate for the survey was small (16.4 percent), the obesity rate in the Dallas study (29 percent) closely aligned with national data (27 percent); however, the overweight classification (44 percent) was greater than the national rate (35 percent).
“In order to decrease healthcare costs, efforts to prevent overweight and obesity and to transform the overweight and obese to normal weight should be taken,” recommends Bungum, associate professor of health promotion at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
Bungum and his team surveyed 506 municipal employees in Dallas, a jurisdiction he says was ranked the “fifth fattest city in America” by Men’s Fitness magazine in 2002. Their average respondent’s age was 43 years, 61 percent were men, and 55 percent were white, 31 percent African American and 11 percent Hispanic. Their average BMI was 28. Normal BMI is under 25, 25-30 is overweight, and over 30 is obese, according to government standards.
“Age, gender, race, educational attainment and smoking all failed to predict obesity-related health care costs,” Bungum says. “The lone significant predictor of healthcare costs was BMI.”
Their finding about smoking echoes an earlier study that showed that obesity influences medical costs more than smoking and alcohol consumption, he says.
While even small weight gains can produce unhealthy
consequences, he says, more research will be needed to confirm that weight loss
will cut medical costs and absenteeism. Longer term studies that would reveal
cause-and-effect relationships between BMI, healthcare expenses and absenteeism
would be a useful next step, says Bungum.
Health Behavior News Service: (202) 387-2829 or www.hbns.org.
Interviews: Contact Timothy Bungum, Dr.P.H. (702) 895-4986 or e-mail Tim.Bungum@ccmail.nevada.edu.
American Journal of Health Behavior: Visit www.ajhb.org
or e-mail eglover@hsc.wvu.edu.
Center for the Advancement of Health
Contact: Ira R. Allen
Director of Public Affairs
202.387.2829
press@cfah.org