The relationship of body mass index, medical costs, and job absenteeism.
OBJECTIVE
To assess the relationship between body mass index, as categorized by the recently released guidelines of the NHLBI, and health care costs and absenteeism in a sample of municipal workers.


METHODS
A cross-sectional study was employed that compared the obesity-related health care costs and absences of normal and overweight/obese city workers.


RESULTS
While accounting for age, gender, race, smoking behavior, and educational attainment, BMI predicted both average annual health-care costs and work absence hours.


CONCLUSIONS
The NHLBI guidelines for overweight and obesity effectively predicted absences and health care costs.
Bungum
Timothy
T
Department of Health Promotion, University of Nevada-Las Vegas, Las Vegas, NV 89154-3050, USA. Tim.Bungum@ccmail.nevada.edu
Satterwhite
Monica
M
Jackson
Allen W
AW
Morrow
James R
JR
D000041:Absenteeism; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D015992:Body Mass Index; D017281:Cost of Illness; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D017048:Health Care Costs; D006801:Humans; D009111:Local Government; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008913:Minority Groups; D009316:National Institutes of Health (U.S.); D009765:Obesity / Q000191:economics* / Q000208:ethnology; D012737:Sex Factors; D012907:Smoking; D015206:Southwestern United States; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014481:United States