– You could think that it was the health care costs – and they exist – but the large part of the costs are those that deal with having a higher sickness absence due to illness which means that you do not participate in working life as much as they normal-weight children, says research director Katarina Steen Carlsson P4 Malmö house.
She works at the Institute for Healthcare and Health Economics, which made the calculations on behalf of the national Childhood Obesity Prevention initiative. Based on population statistics and previous studies, the researchers have calculated the extra costs overweight and obesity generate for society over a lifetime.
Amount in billions per year
The additional costs to society for a six-year-old with obesity over a lifetime, compared to a six-year-old with a normal weight, are calculated according to the report at SEK 430,000 for girls and SEK 250,000 for boys, according to the report.
Since in a cohort of 120,000 six-year-olds in Sweden there are more than 5,000 children with obesity, the total cost over their lifetime is SEK 1.8 billion.
There are also more than 14,000 overweight children in the cohort and for them the societal cost will be 2.1 billion, according to the calculations
30 diagnoses
Three quarters of the costs are due to production losses in adulthood linked to increased sickness absence. These, in turn, are due to overweight and obesity increasing the risk of a wide range of diseases.
The report includes an increased risk for a total of 30 different diagnoses: 16 different forms of cancer, five different cardiovascular diseases, diabetes type 2, gout, depression, asthma, gallstones, osteoarthritis, back pain, chronic kidney disease and sick leave linked to the diagnosis of obesity ( obesity) itself.
“By making visible the costs that obesity generates for individuals and society, we are convinced that decision-makers get better tools for their decisions about priorities,” says pediatrician and professor Jovanna Dahlgren at Sahlgrenska University Hospital in a press release from Innovation Skåne.