The cost of overweight and obesity in Australia

Stephen Colagiuri et al.

The author of this study is the Professor of Metabolic Health in Sydney, NSW. He and his colleagues analysed 5-year follow-up data from 6140 participants of the Australian Diabetes, Obesity and Lifestyle study, collected in 2004-2005.

The first interesting results from the study were the characteristics of the participants, reflective of society in general: Only a quarter (25%) were of normal weight (BMI < 25), whereas one-third (33%) were overweight (BMI 25 - 30) and 42% were obese (BMI > 30).

The authors proceed on to report the total direct cost of obesity in Australia in 2005 was $8.3 billion, considerably higher than previous estimates. The true cost of weight abnormalities is even greater. Traditionally, studies report only costs associated with obesity and rarely take overweight into account. However, overweight is also associated with an increased risk of many comorbidities that increase health care costs related to medications and hospitalisation. Their study confirmed that direct costs are increased for overweight people, with the total annual cost associated with BMI-defined overweight being $10.5 billion. If overweight and obesity based on BMI are considered, total annual costs increase to $21.0 billion.

In addition, overweight and obesity are associated with other costs, including government subsidies and indirect costs associated with loss of productivity, early retirement, premature death and carer costs. Their study showed that the average annual cost of government subsidies for the overweight and obese was an annual cost of $35.6 billion. Combined with direct costs, this results in an overall total annual cost of $56.6 billion.

MJA 2010; 192 (5): 260-264

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