The cost of obesity

Reported by Susan Aldridge, PhD, medical journalist

Obesity costs employees up to 2,500 dollars a year in absenteeism and medical costs, according to a survey.
Obesity can lead to various kinds of ill health. In a study, the research organization RTI and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have managed to put a cost on being overweight for those who are employed. For male employees the costs range from 460 to 2,030 dollars a year, for female employees the costs are between 1,370 and 2,485 dollars a year. For women, these costs are driven mainly by absenteeism. The higher a person's body mass index, the more their overweight costs them.

An employee of healthy weight misses about three days a year from work through illness or injury. For a women who is 100 pounds overweight, the number of days lost is eight. This is something that employers perhaps need to give more attention to. They could try looking for effective strategies for reducing weight among their workforce.

Source
American Journal of Health Promotion September/October 2005

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