Over the years IPCS (www.ipcs-inc.com) has presented research to substantiate the increase in obesity in the workplace. IPCS also presented research that shows the cost associated with obesity in the workplace.
A new study published on October 5, 2005 in the Annals of Internal Medicine said the short-term and long-term risk of becoming overweight or obese is greater than originally stated. The article is titled “Estimated Risks for Developing Obesity in the Framingham Heart Study” and is authored by R. Vassan and others.
Here is the bottom line. 
In the long run (over 30 years), nine out of ten young to middle age adults (30 to 50 years old) are likely to be or become overweight and 50 percent will either be or develop obesity. These numbers are higher than what the current research predicts about the prevalence of obesity. In the short-term (over a period of 4 years), nearly 23 percent of the middle-aged women are predicted to progress to a stage of obesity and nearly 30 percent of the males are expected to become obese. These numbers are staggering.
One surprise finding was the high risk of becoming overweight or obese for the age group of 30-39 years. These are individuals who make up a good portion of a company’s workforce.
What does this mean for your business?
If you have a business that employs 400 individuals with equal number of males and females, ninety-two of the female workers will become obese and 120 of the male worker force will become obese within 4 years. In the year 2005, the obese worker cost a company on average $1,426 more in health related costs each year and that cost is expected to increase to nearly $2,500 in 2010. Using a conservative estimate of $2,000 for 2009, these obese workers will cost the company $424,000 in additional health related costs each year within 4 years. Add to this figure, indirect costs such increase absenteeism, reduced productivity, increase risk for injury and so on, the cost easily climbs into millions of dollars.
For more information on estimated obesity related costs for your company, click on this link: (obesity calculator). The obesity calculator is using data based on the IPCS new hire database and is more conservative than the numbers identified above.
Here are a few other facts about the Dr. Vassan’s research.
This is the first study that tracked more than 4,000 white participants for 30 years – from 1971 to 2001. The study was able to observe men and women changing from normal weight to overweight and from overweight to obese.
A critical finding was that the risk for obesity was greater for overweight individuals than for normal weight individuals becoming overweight.
The short-term analysis looked at changes in body mass index (BMI) in 4-year increments. Fourteen to 19 percent (depending on their age) of the women with normal weight at the beginning of the study progressed to being overweight in just four years. Sixteen to 23% of the overweight women progressed to one of several obesity stages in four years. Twenty-six to 30% of the men with normal weight progressed to overweight in just four years. And for those men who were overweight, twelve to thirteen percent progressed to a stage of obesity in four years.
When reviewing the data over ten years, between 12% and 30% of the women were obese or developed obesity and the same was true for 22% to 36% of men depending on the age group. When looking at the data over 30 years, more than 75% of the women and 90% of the men were overweight. More than 61% of the women were at risk of becoming obese and nearly 70% of the men were at risk for obesity.
The authors were careful to point out that the study involved only white participants, which means it is difficult to generalize to all races and ethnicities. However, the authors also pointed out that the risk for obesity is normally greater for Afro-Americans and Hispanics based on current research. This means if one did generalize to these two groups the results would even be worse.
