title: Obesity, survival, and hospital costs-findings from a screening project in Sweden.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Our aims were to estimate 1) the costs of hospital treatment and 2) the value of lost production due to early death associated with overweight and obese patients, and then to extrapolate the findings to national costs.
  
  
  METHODS
  We use regression models to analyze survival, expected number of days in hospital treatment for patients with different body mass index (BMI), and costs with data obtained from screening of 33,196 middle-aged subjects living in Malmö, Sweden, and collected during a 15-year follow-up period. We subsequently scale up costs to national aggregate level using the BMI prevalence data from the screening project to the national population.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The total excess hospital (somatic, psychiatric) care cost (Swedish krona or SEK) for the national health-care budget, excess as compared to normal weight patients for obese (BMI > 30) and overweight (25 < or = BMI < 30) was estimated to SEK2155 million per annum (269 million dollars, assuming 1 dollar = SEK8), or about 2.3% of total hospital care costs in Sweden. The corresponding indirect costs due to early death were estimated to SEK2935 million (367 million dollars). For males at age 55, the potential hospital costs saving, excluding costs of the intervention that could be gained by an intervention that successfully and safely could alter the weight of an obese individual to become normal weight, was estimated on average to SEK4434 (554 dollars) per annum.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Hospital treatment costs are found to be higher for obese and overweight patients than for normal weight patients indicating potential cost savings especially on indirect costs by effective, safe and low cost weight-loss intervention.
authors.affiliation: IHE, (The Swedish Institute for Health Economics), Lund, Sweden.
authors.forename: Sixten
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Borg
authors.forename: Ulf
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Persson
authors.forename: Knut
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Odegaard
authors.forename: Göran
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Berglund
authors.forename: Jan-Ake
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Nilsson
authors.forename: Peter M
authors.initials: PM
authors.lastname: Nilsson
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D015992:Body Mass Index; D001835:Body Weight; D017281:Cost of Illness; D004526:Efficiency; D005260:Female; D017721:Hospital Costs / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006760:Hospitalization / Q000191:economics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D015993:Life Tables; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening; D008499:Medical Records; D008875:Middle Aged; D009765:Obesity / Q000191:economics* / Q000401:mortality*; D016019:Survival Analysis; D013548:Sweden / Q000453:epidemiology