[lbo-talk] high U.S. health costs: because we're too fat?

Doug Henwood dhenwood at panix.com
Tue Oct 2 07:08:17 PDT 2007


[Health Affairs article is at <http://content.healthaffairs.org/cgi/ content/full/hlthaff.26.6.w678/DC1>.]

Obesity may push U.S. health costs above Europe: study

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Nearly twice as many U.S. adults are obese compared to European, a key factor leading Americans to suffer more often from cancer, diabetes and other chronic ailments, a study released on Tuesday found.

Treatment of these and other chronic diseases adds between $100 billion and $150 billion to the annual health care tab in the United States, according to the report comparing U.S. and European health published online in the journal Health Affairs.

The United States spends significantly more per capita than any European country on health care, about $2 trillion annually, or 16 percent of the gross domestic product. While the big discrepancy has been linked to higher U.S. prices for medical treatment, the report said a sicker population may also be a factor.

"We expected to see differences between disease prevalence in the United States and Europe, but the extent of the differences is surprising," said Ken Thorpe, professor of public health at Emory University and a study co-author. "It is possible that we spend more on health care because we are, indeed, less healthy."

A key factor in many chronic illnesses is obesity and smoking. About 33 percent of Americans are obese, compared with 17 percent in 10 European countries reviewed. More than half of Americans are former or current smokers, compared with about 43 percent in the European sample.

While Americans appeared to be on the whole sicker than adults in other industrialized countries, the study said more aggressive preventive care could help explain the results for some illnesses.

For example, the study found 12.2 percent of Americans are diagnosed with cancer, more than twice that of Europe. But that is likely due in part to more screening here, the study said.

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some striking facts from the Health Affairs article:


> Chronic disease risk factors such as obesity and smoking rates are
> higher in the United States than in the ten European countries we
> examined. According to the self-reported data in 2004, 33.1 percent
> of U.S. adults age fifty and older were obese, compared with 17.1
> percent in the ten European countries included in the most current
> version of SHARE.19 Obesity prevalence among the SHARE/European
> countries ranged from a low of 6.6 percent in France to a high of
> 23.3 percent in Spain.
>
> Cigarette consumption, like obesity, is associated with increased
> risk of a number of the conditions we examined. According to the
> HRS and SHARE, 53 percent of Americans age fifty and older had
> smoked or were current smokers, compared with only 43 percent in
> the European countries. These results are consistent with
> historical comparisons of U.S.-European smoking patterns.



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