Being obese costs big bucks

A team of medical researchers have put a price tag on obesity. They determined the annual cost of being obese is $2,646 for a man and $4,879 for a woman. When they factored in the idea that obesity can take years of a person’s life, the lost productivity from premature death pushed the figures higher, to $8,365 a year for women and $6,518 for a man.

The study, by the George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services said the costs include days absent from work, time lost at work because of lower productivity, short-term disability, disability pension insurance, years of life lost measured by the dollar value of a quality-adjusted life, daily needs and additional gasoline use, office-based care, emergency room care, dental care and pharmaceuticals.

The study’s co-author Christine Ferguson says the difference determined between the sexes indicates that heavier women earn less than thinner women, while wages don’t differ when men pack on the pounds.

The team determined that abdominal obesity is when a person has a waist size of approximately 35 inches for women and 40 inches for men Obesity has been tied to a wide range of health problems, including heart disease, diabetes, and high blood pressure.

Two-thirds of Americans are either overweight or obese, and childhood obesity has tripled in the past three decades. Almost 18% of adolescents now are obese, facing a future of diabetes, heart disease and other ailments.