Childhood Obesity (4) - Costs of obesity

Obesity can lead to serious health problems. Among other medical problems, the more commonly known ones are cardiovascular diseases, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, obstructive sleep apnea and other breathing problems. With more obese children turning into obese adults, they will more likely produce obese children. As a result of this vicious cycle, the economic burden on society increases at an alarming rate.

The Ontario Medical Association report pointed out that studies have shown that there is a 50% chance that the children will also be obese if only one parent is obese, and the chance increase to 80% when both parents are obese, and the report assessed that in 1997, Canada spent more than $1.8 billion on fighting obesity (OMA, 2005a).

This figure just shows the direct costs, which are inputs of resources to fight the direct medical consequences of the problem. However, this problem also carries indirect costs, which are negative outputs, or lack of outputs. As a result, levels of economic productivity are negatively impacted due to poorer health, absenteeism, disability and premature mortality (Starky, 2005).

Reference
OMA (2005a). An Ounce of Prevention or a Ton of Trouble: Is there an epidemic of obesity in children? Ontario Medical Association.
Starky, S. (2005). The Obesity Epidemic in Canada. Ottawa: Parliamentary Information and Research Services, Economics Division.