Childhood Obesity Costs $19,000

What does childhood obesity cost? According to a new analysis, an obese child will pay $19,000 in incremental lifetime medical care through adulthood as compared to a child of normal weight.

To put that in perspective, multiplying that number of 10-year-old obese children in the United States equals to $14 billion in lifetime medical costs for that age group alone.

Researchers at Duke Global Health Institute and Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School in Singapore analyzed 6 US-based studies published between 2008-2013 and extracted or imputed lifetime medical cost estimates. The estimates were inflated to 2012 dollars.

An alternative estimate takes into account the possibility of some normal-weight children becoming overweight or obese in adulthood and reduces the price tag to $12,900 per obese child.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

RELATED CONTENT
Obesity in Children and Adolescents: Identifying Eating Disorders
Longer Duration of Obesity Tied to Higher Risk of CHD
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The study measures direct medical costs for obesity—eg, doctors’ visits and medication—but does not take into account indirect costs, such as loss of productivity and absenteeism.

“Public health interventions should be prioritized on their ability to improve health at a reasonable cost,” said lead author, Eric Andrew Finkelstein, PhD, MHA. “In order to understand the cost implications of obesity prevention efforts, it is necessary to accurately quantify the burden of childhood obesity if left untreated.”

The CDC reports that 1 in 3 adults and 1 in 5 children in the United States are obese. Obesity is a known risk factor for cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, and certain cancers.

References:

  1. Finkelstein EA, Graham WCK, Malhotra R. Lifetime direct medical costs of childhood obesity. 2014 Apr 7. doi 10.1542/peds.2014-0063
  2. Duke Global Health Institute. Over a lifetime, childhood obesity costs $19,000 per child [press release]. 2014 Apr 7. Available at: https://globalhealth.duke.edu/media/news/over-lifetime-childhood-obesity-costs-19000-child. Accessed April 7, 2014.
  3. CDC. Overweight and obesity. Available at: http://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/facts.html. Accessed April 7, 2014.