title: The impact of weight gain or loss on health care costs for employees at the Johnson & Johnson Family of Companies.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To quantify the impact of weight gain or weight loss on health care costs.
  
  
  METHODS
  Employees completing at least two health risk assessments during 2002 to 2008 were classified as adding, losing, or staying at high/low risk for each of the nine health risks including overweight and obesity. Models for each risk were used to compare cost trends by controlling for employee characteristics.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Employees who developed high risk for obesity (n = 405) experienced 9.9% points higher annual cost increases (95% confidence interval: 3.0%-16.8%) than those who remained at lower risk (n = 8015). Employees who moved from high to lower risk for obesity (n = 384), experienced annual cost increases that were 2.3% points lower (95% confidence interval: -7.4% to 2.8%) than those who remained high risk (n = 1699).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Preventing weight gain through effective employee health promotion programs is likely to result in cost savings for employers.
authors.affiliation: Health Outcomes, Thomson Reuters, Washington, DC, USA. Ginger.Carls@thomsonreuters.com
authors.forename: Ginger Smith
authors.initials: GS
authors.lastname: Carls
authors.forename: Ron Z
authors.initials: RZ
authors.lastname: Goetzel
authors.forename: Rachel Mosher
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Henke
authors.forename: Jennifer
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Bruno
authors.forename: Fikry
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Isaac
authors.forename: Janice
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: McHugh
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D017048:Health Care Costs / Q000639:trends*; D006293:Health Promotion / Q000191:economics; D006305:Health Status Indicators; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016272:Occupational Health; D050177:Overweight / Q000191:economics; D015430:Weight Gain; D015431:Weight Loss; D055815:Young Adult