Excess body weight contributes to a premature health economic aging of 8.3 years, equivalent to an additional annual health expenditure of $306B: Results of a US population study
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This study evaluates the population-level effects of excess body weight on US healthcare expenditure via quantification of health economic aging across the population.
Abstract: This study introduced the concept of a patient’s health economic (HE) age. The HE age of an individual with a disease is defined as the average age of a sex-matched person without disease who has equivalent healthcare costs. In this example, the disease is excess body weight measured by BMI, figure 1. This concept is analogous to other biological ages, such as a patient’s heart age. Adults with overweight or obesity were identified from population-level US demographic data contained within the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) and their age- and sex-adjusted direct healthcare expenditure was determined based on the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS). Compared with an ideal body weight (defined as 24 kg/m2), living with excess bodyweight results in an average HE age 8.3 years greater than chronological age (10.5 years females, 4.2 years males). At the population level, this results in a premature HE ageing of 1.34 billion years across the adult population with overweight and obesity. This translates to an annual excess of $299.93 bn in direct healthcare expenditure ($122.04 bn in males and $177.90 bn in females), which would facilitate the treatment of an additional 46 million 60-year-old adults at current levels of healthcare expenditure.
Lay abstract: This study looked at how being overweight or obese affects healthcare costs in the US by using the concept of “health economic (HE) age”. HE age refers to the average age of a healthy person with similar healthcare costs to someone with a specific condition; in this case, excess body weight. People with excess body weight (overweight or obese) have a higher HE age than their actual age: 10.5 years older in women, and 4.2 years older in men. This results in an additional annual healthcare expenditure of $299.93 bn (women: $177.90 bn, men: $122.04 bn). Excess body weight significantly increases healthcare costs, highlighting the need for effective weight management strategies to reduce these economic burdens.
Recommended citation: Evans, M., Padgett, T., McEwan, P. (2024) Excess body weight contributes to a premature health economic aging of 8.3 years, equivalent to an additional annual health expenditure of $306B: Results of a US population study. Diabetes 14 June 2024; 73 (Supplement_1): 1059–P. https://doi.org/10.2337/db24-1059-P