Many people are motivated to consult the records of the Congressional Budget Office to learn just how much cold, hard cash is being spent to both prevent and alleviate obesity. As parents, potential parents, or other familial caregivers, or as socially responsible adults, we might want to keep an eye on the obesity expenses reported by the Milken Institute, and here is why. Its documents are easier to understand.
To track the social and economic costs of obesity back to their plethora of roots in American society is definitely a multifactorial task, ideal for adoption by a nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank. In the Institute’s 2020 report, “Weighing Down America,” three authors (Claude Lopez, Ph.D., Joseph Bendix, and Ken Sagynbekov, Ph.D.) explained all the interconnected factors that influenced everything else going on during that portion of the century.
It took some time to collect, record, and crunch all the relevant numbers, but eventually the heap of information emerged in usable form as the report subtitled “A Community Approach against Obesity.” It said that in 2018, the economic cost of obesity was…
[…] roughly 6.76 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) […] compared to 5.57 percent in 2014, or in dollar terms, $1.389 trillion in 2018 compared to $0.976 trillion in 2014.
That was quite an increase for just four years of history, and the COVID-19 pandemic did nothing to help the situation. Many trends were observed, such as the tendency of 40- to 59-year-olds to become larger, especially among the Black and Hispanic communities, and especially if they are male.
But actually, all humans are getting bigger, and there is no point in singling out any group for blame. Various medical demographics seem to more seriously afflict people who have certain characteristics, but it also appears that every subgroup’s turn to be a scapegoat will come around, eventually.
As in so many cases, the universe demonstrates a certain fondness for balance and fairness. This may be why, for instance…
The obesity rates among Hispanic women and all women aged 40-59 show a marked decline during the same period.
The report looks into why and how obesity catches up with some folks sooner than others. There are the “social and behavioral factors,” otherwise known as a little thing called your life. The most influential of those factors are “unemployment, excessive drinking, smoking, post-secondary education, and single-parent households.”
Also, other circumstances intervene, like…
[…] rurality, housing concerns, population density, metropolitan area, violent crime rate, and the number of fast-food establishments per 100,000 people… The Black population factor has the third strongest association with obesity prevalence…
Collectively, the communities queried in order to garner these statistics are said to represent 61% of the U.S. population. All told, the analysis is said by the authors to combine…
[…] health, behavioral, economic, and social data sets and suggests that some aspects of the obesity epidemic would be better addressed at the local level, while others would benefit from a federal initiative. It also identifies factors for each community to consider when coordinating national and local authorities and other partners such as health-care professionals, business and community leaders, school, and child care.
Great amounts of thought are being put into these matters, and official bureaus may be unable to offer much help, because funds sometimes turn out to be unavailable for the projects to which they were supposedly allocated. Answering the obesity questions should be a top priority, because obesity has a close relationship with some of the leading causes of death in this country, “including diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and some types of cancer.”
Here is a thought that the writers of this page definitely want readers to come away with:
Obesity is often mischaracterized as a lifestyle choice while it is a complex chronic disease resulting from social, environmental, genetic, and behavioral factors.
The authors also remind the reader how much work is involved in a project like calculating what obesity costs America. Opinions vary about where regular life ends and obesity takes over. Exactly which medical expenses should be thrown into the count? What expenditures are reasonable, which are unreasonable, and who gets to decide?
A very great number of small decisions are involved in producing these statistics, and that is before people even start arguing about them. The whole project is a gigantic challenge that no end user will be entirely happy with. A lot of really important detail has to be left out:
Medical expenses and lost workdays represent only a portion of obesity-related costs. Other expenses, such as the use of informal caregivers or those related to lost productivity outside of work, premature mortality, and impact on family and potential income, are extremely difficult to measure and are not included here. Yet, as imperfect as this measure is, its message is clear: Obesity remains very costly to society.
Your responses and feedback are welcome!
Source: “Weighing Down America: 2020 Update,” MilkenInstitute.org, 12/1/20
Image by Milken Institute/Fair Use
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