The Economic Cost of Obesity
Findings from new Safefood funded research into the cost of overweight and obesity on the island of Ireland has estimated the annual cost to be €1.64 billion (€1.13 billion Republic of Ireland; €510 million Northern Ireland).Â
The study, conducted by University College Cork, found that in the Republic of Ireland, 35% of total costs (€398 million) represented direct healthcare costs i.e. hospital in-patient; out-patient; GP and drug costs. However, two thirds (65%) of the economic costs were indirect costs in reduced or lost productivity and absenteeism, and amounted to €728 million.
In total, 18 weight-related diseases were studied, and the main drivers of direct healthcare costs are: cardiac disease (44%), Type 2 diabetes (9%), colorectal cancer (12%), stroke (6%) and cancers of the breast (2%), kidney (3%) oesophagus (2%) and gallbladder (3%). Low back pain is a major driver for work absenteeism and productivity loss.Â
The Executive Summary can be found at: www.safefood.eu/SafeFood/media/SafeFoodLibrary/Documents/Publications/Research%20Reports/Final-Exec-Summary-The-Economic-Cost-of-Obesity.pdf