New Study Claims That Obese Adults Impose Higher Health Care Costs Than Smokers

Researchers studying 30,000 adult Mayo Clinic employees, retirees and dependents over a seven-year period have concluded that health care costs for the morbidly obese are far higher than those for smokers. James Moriarty, et al., “The Effects of Incremental Costs of Smoking and Obesity on Health Care Costs Among Adults,” Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, March 2012. The study found that health care costs for smokers exceed those for nonsmokers by $1,274 to $1,401 depending on retirement status, i.e., age, and health care costs for the overweight and obese (ranging from simply overweight to morbidly obese II) exceed those for individuals with normal body mass index by $382 to $5,530. The incremental costs are significantly higher at higher weight categories. While controlling for comorbidities, the researchers found lower incremental costs for obesity, but suggested that such controls “may lead to underestimation of the true incremental costs because obesity is a risk factor for developing chronic conditions.” They recommend additional research to address this issue.