Estimating the Medical Care Costs of Obesity in the United States: Systematic Review, Meta-Analysis, and Empirical Analysis

What is it about?

This paper examines medical care costs of obesity in the United States through the lens of how variations in study design and methodology influence cost estimates. Although the impact of obesity on medical spending is undeniably significant, our systematic review of the twelve recent cost studies showed that cost estimates attributable to obesity varied considerably. The meta-analysis found that the annual medical spending attributable to obesity was $1,901 per obese individual ($1,239 - $2,582) in 2014 USD. This estimate could translate into $149.4 billion at the national level.

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Why is it important?

These findings highlighted that that most, if not all, of the costs of obesity are mainly caused by obesity-related diseases. Also, our study suggested that the utility of published cost estimates should be examined carefully because of their wide variations, and the estimates should be applied carefully in future research and policy-making.