Article

The financial burden of overweight and obesity among elderly Americans: the dynamics of weight, longevity, and health care cost.

Department of Health Services Research, Management and Policy, College of Public Health and Health Professions, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32610-0195, USA.
Health Services Research (impact factor: 2.16). 07/2008; 43(3):849-68. DOI:10.1111/j.1475-6773.2007.00801.x pp.849-68
Source: PubMed

ABSTRACT To investigate the financial burdens attributed to overweight and obesity on the U.S. health care system among elderly Americans.
Longitudinal Cost and Use files of the Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey from 1992 to 2001.
We constructed a simultaneous equation system to model the dynamic relationship between changes in body weight, chronic diseases, functional status, longevity, and health care expenditures using maximum likelihood estimation. Based on the estimation, we conducted a simulation of one cohort with different baseline weights at age 65 and followed to death or up to age 100 of their health outcomes and lifetime health care expenditures.
The elderly men who were overweight or obese at age 65 had 6-13 percent more lifetime health care expenditures than the same age cohort within normal weight range at age 65. Elderly women who were overweight or obese at age 65 spent 11-17 percent more than those in a normal weight range. Both elderly men and women who were overweight or obese at age 65 had worse health outcomes than the normal weight cohorts. The average body mass index among survivors decreased by age.
Overweight and obesity could place significant financial burdens on the U.S. health care system.

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Keywords

age cohort
 
average body mass index
 
body weight
 
chronic diseases
 
different baseline weights
 
dynamic relationship
 
elderly Americans
 
elderly men
 
functional status
 
health care expenditures
 
health outcomes
 
lifetime health care expenditures
 
Longitudinal Cost
 
Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey
 
normal weight cohorts
 
normal weight range
 
Overweight
 
simultaneous equation system
 
U.S. health care system
 
Use files
 

Zhou Yang