An Analysis of the Medical Costs of Obesity for Fifth Graders in California and Texas.
The prevalence of childhood obesity in the United States increased more than three-fold from 1976 - 1980 to 2007 - 2008. The Presidential Youth Fitness Program's FitnessGram® is the current method recommended by the President's Council on Fitness, Sports & Nutrition for assessing health-related fitness factors, including body composition. FitnessGram® data from California and Texas, the two most populous states, over a three-year time span indicate that more than one-third of fifth grade students, typically ten-year-olds, are obese. Previous studies report that an obese ten-year-old child who remains obese into adulthood will incur elevated direct medical costs beyond his or her normal-weight peers over a lifetime. The recommended elevated cost estimates are approximately $12,660 when comparing against a normal-weight child who gains weight as an adult and approximately $19,000 compared to a child who remains at normal weight as an adult. By applying these figures to FitnessGram® results from California and Texas, each group of fifth grade students in each of the two states will incur between $1.4 and $3.0 billion in direct medical costs over a lifetime. When the percentage of obese fifth graders is extrapolated to the rest of the United States' 4 million ten-year-olds, this results in more than $17 billion (accounting for adulthood weight gain) or $25 billion (not accounting for adulthood weight gain) in added direct lifetime medical costs attributable to obesity for this single-year age cohort. This information should be used to influence spending decisions and resource allocation to obesity reduction and prevention efforts.
Department of Kinesiology, Health Promotion, and Recreation, University of North Texas, Denton, TX, USA.
Danielle E
DE
Levitt
Department of Kinesiology, Health Promotion, and Recreation, University of North Texas, Denton, TX, USA.
Allen W
AW
Jackson
Department of Kinesiology, Health Promotion, and Recreation, University of North Texas, Denton, TX, USA.
James R
JR
Morrow
Childhood; FitnessGram; obese