Epidemiology, Measurement, and Cost of Obesity

Abstract

Obesity currently affects 78.6 million people (33 %) in the United States and is expected to increase to over 50 % of the population by 2030. The epidemic is fueled by the growing rate of obesity in adolescents of 17 %. Healthcare systems have the responsibility to provide care to this burgeoning group of people. Accurate measurement and tracking of a patient's BMI is critical. As a screening tool it may identify patients with a BMI of 25 kg/m 2 and above who are classified as overweight and are at risk for progression of weight and obesity-related disease. Identification of this group of people presents a tremendous opportunity to reverse the progression of obesity with traditional and less expensive methods of weight loss and control such as diet and exercise. Patients in the overweight BMI group (25.0-29.9 kg/m 2) have generally not yet experienced amplification of their obesity through genetic resetting™. Current research proves that keeping a patient in the overweight range or bringing a patient to a lower BMI from the obese range will stave off obesity-related disease and save billions of dollars in direct and indirect cost. This chapter will describe the preferred clinical method of accurately measuring obesity using Weight Related Health Indicators (WRHI), which should include BMI, waist circumference, and body fat percentage. The WRHI should be measured and recorded for every patient at every visit and become part of the patient's ongoing educational and monitoring process. Currently there is no scalable system in place to cope with the demand for treatment or the cost. The stakes are high. The annual cost is $305 billion with $190 billion going to the direct cost of treatment of related disease. A universal platform that employs regular, ongoing measurements of WRHI for every patient at every health care visit will allow a scalable system to be put in place to recognize the development of overweight and obesity and to provide timely opportunities to treat the burgeoning epidemic at its earliest stages.