Only ¼ of Aussies are healthy weight

Cost of care for the overweight and obese: Aus$56bill pa

Research in the Medical Journal of Australia by Stephen Colagiuri et al. has found that the direct costs of overweight and obesity in Australia are substantially higher than earlier estimates – at Aus$21 billion per year ($6.5 billion for overweight and $14.5 billion for obesity). Health costs per person were found to be Aus$1,472 on average, but for the obese this rises to Aus$2,788.

In addition, people who are overweight and obese received $35.6 billion in government subsidies, bringing the total costs to about Aus$56 billion each year.

Previous studies have often not included the extra costs of overweight, focusing only on obese individuals.

The study was of 6140 people aged over 30, of whom only 24.7% were normal healthy weight, with 32.4 considered overweight (BMI 25–29.9) and 42.9% obese (BMI >30).

Sources: Canberra Times, 3 March 2010, and S. Colagiuri et al., ‘The cost of overweight and obesity in Australia’, MJA 2010; 192(5):260–264.

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