Where Obesity Places The Biggest Burden On Healthcare.

• Author: McCarthy, Niall

Byline: Niall McCarthy

Today is World Obesity Day, an annual campaign established in 2015 to stimulate and support practical actions that will help people achieve and maintain a healthy weight and reverse the global obesity crisis. The scale of that crisis has been highlighted by a new OECD report which shows just how much bulging waistlines are costing health systems around the world. Obese people tend to avail of of healthcare services more frequently with a higher rate of specialty care visits, inpatient stays and surgery, all leading to higher healthcare spending. The OECD states that obese people have 2.4 times more presctiptions than healthy-weight individuals on average while hospital stays are longer and require more expensive and complex treatment.

For example, obesity is responsible for 70 percent of all...