Obesity Update
New Understanding of Obesity
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Recent research is uncovering a new scientific understanding of the complex, multifactorial, and self-preserving nature of this disease.
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While we now understand that weight regulation is governed by complex interactions of neuronal and hormonal signals, the underlying physiology has yet to be fully understood.
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As the obesity treatment paradigm continues to evolve, there is a substantial and growing body of clinical evidence that supports a spectrum of treatment of options that effectively treat obesity and its related diseases (i.e., type II diabetes, sleep apnea, cancers, high blood pressure, high cholesterol).
Engaging the Population with Obesity - A Cause Worthy of Action
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), obesity is directly related to poorer mental health, reduced quality of life, and the leading causes of death in the U.S. and worldwide, including diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and some types of cancer. (1)
Serving as the root cause of dozens of related diseases, obesity not only degrades individual and population health. This chronic disease, now affecting more than one-third of the entire U.S. population (36%), continues to drain a high, disproportionate share of healthcare organization resources. (1)
In fact:
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Obesity-related costs have been reported to be at $190 billion a year, or 20.6% of U.S. health care expenditures. (2)
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Patients with obesity incur:
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46% increased inpatient costs;
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27% more physician visits and outpatient costs;
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80% increased spending on prescription drugs. (3)
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Researchers have estimated that by 2030, if obesity trends continue unchecked in the U.S., related medical costs could increase by $48 to $66 billion a year. (3)
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The Centers for Disease Control & Prevention. Adult Obesity Causes & Consequences, 2106. Available at: https://www.cdc.gov/obesity/adult/causes.html
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Cawley J, Meyerhoefer C. The medical care costs of obesity: an instrumental variables approach. Journal of Health Economics, Jan 2012. Available at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22094013
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Wang CY, McPherson K, Marsh T, Gortmaker S, Brown M. Health and economic burden of the projected obesity trends in the USA and the UK.Lancet. 2011; 378:815-25. Available at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21872750
Current Challenges
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With the World Health Organization reporting that 39% of adults aged 18 years and over were overweight in 2014, 13% of which were patients with obesity, these rates have reached pandemic proportions. (1)
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This chronic illness and its related diseases produce an increasingly heavy, financial and operational burden on care delivery systems and its many constituents.
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Even more challenging:
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Current obesity treatment models fail to produce long-term, effective results for patients;
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Improving operational efficiencies and patient outcomes are daunting tasks in the midst of shrinking reimbursement and rising costs;
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There is a general knowledge gap in the scientific underpinnings of obesity and its related diseases that could inform treatment models;
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Many patients affected by obesity lack the access to care that will help them achieve a healthy weight.
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Without a systemic intervention, the growing obesity pandemic will continue to drain organizational resources.
1. World Health Organization. Obesity & Overweight Fact Sheet, http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs311/en/
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