Obese workers cost more to the company than medical expenditure

WASHINGTON - A study has shown that total loss of job productivity due to absenteeism of obese people at workplace is more than their medical expenditure.

A Duke University obesity researcher has revealed that the cost of obesity among U.S. full-time employees is estimated to be 73.1 billion dollars.

This is the first study to quantify the total value of lost job productivity as a result of health problems, which is more costly than their medical expenditures.

Led by Eric Finkelstein, deputy director for health services and systems research at Duke-National University of Singapore, the study quantified the per capita cost of obesity among full-time workers by considering three factors: employee medical expenditures, lost productivity on the job due to health problems (presenteeism), and absence from work (absenteeism).

Collectively, the per capita costs of obesity are as high as 16,900 dollars for obese women with a body mass index (BMI) over 40 (roughly 100 pounds overweight) and 15,500 dollars for obese men in the same BMI class.

Presenteeism makes up the largest share of those costs. Finkelstein found that presenteeism accounted for as much as 56 percent of the total cost of obesity for women, and 68 percent for men. Even among those in the normal weight range, the value of lost productivity due to health problems far exceeded the medical costs.

As part of this secondary analysis of the 2006 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey and the 2008 US National Health and Wellness Survey, presenteeism was measured and monetized as the lost time between arriving at work and starting work on days when the employee is not feeling well, and the average frequency of losing concentration, repeating a job, working more slowly than usual, feeling fatigued at work, and doing nothing at work.

The study included data on individuals who are normal weight, overweight and obese, with sub-groupings based on BMI.

When all costs of obesity are combined, individuals with a body mass index greater than 35 (grades II and III obese) disproportionately account for 61 percent of the costs, yet they only represent 37 percent of the obese population.

The study has been published in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine. (ANI)