Lehigh University College of Business and Economics recently published a press release about a surprising correlation between American obesity and medical costs that will help policy-makers “calculate the cost-effectiveness of interventions to prevent and treat obesity.”
Obesity plays a significant role in cardiovascular disease and diabetes. In the past three decades, stateside rates have “more than doubled.” According to the article, “obesity accounts for almost 21% of U.S. healthcare costs,” raising annual medical care costs by roughly $315.8 billion (2010). The article notes that that figure is equivalent to “the annual cost of Parts A and B of the Medicaid program combined.”
But assessing a specific figure has historically been tricky.
Associate professor of economics Chad Meyerhoefer spearheaded the venture as part of a 2014 PharmacoEconomics Journal study, entitled “Savings in Medical Expenditures Associated with Reductions in Body Mass Index Among U.S. Adults with Obesity, by Diabetes Status.” Meyerhoefer enlisted a crack research team consisting of Lehigh doctoral student Adam Biener, Cornell’s John Cawley, and Novo Nordisk’s Mette Hammer and Neil Wintfeld.
According to Meyerhoefer, previous studies did not take “erroneous reporting” into account. Nor did they acknowledge the fact that obesity is more likely to transpire in low-income communities who typically have limited access to education and healthcare.
According to the article, Meyerhoefer and company “developed a methodology to correct existing models for those two factors.” They discovered that there was no cost increase of which to speak when comparing men “in the low end of the obese range”—class 1 with a BMI of 30—“with men of normal weight.”
However, when they analyzed data from morbidly obese diabetics (BMI of 40) who managed to shed between 5-10% of their body mass index, the team noted a significant decrease in annual medical care costs—$2,137 to be precise.
The Institute of Medicine and American Heart Association have taken notice. Meyerhoefer’s study has emerged as one of the subject’s most cited papers.
In the process, they “found a nonlinear relationship between weight gain and medical costs.” It turns out that the majority of medical costs associated with obesity are generated by a small fraction of the obese population—individuals with class 3 (high risk) obesity in possession of a BMI of 35 or higher.
Simply put: “Costs don’t go up until you get into extreme obesity,” according to Meyerhoefer.