StudentShare
Contact Us
Sign In / Sign Up for FREE
Search
Go to advanced search...

Economic Impact of Obesity: Literature Review - Essay Example

Cite this document
Summary
Economic Impact of Obesity Introduction Obesity has become a common social problem in not only the United States, but also all around the world. However, there is no universal definition of obesity…
Download full paper File format: .doc, available for editing
GRAB THE BEST PAPER96.2% of users find it useful
Economic Impact of Obesity: Literature Review
Read Text Preview

Extract of sample "Economic Impact of Obesity: Literature Review"

Download file to see previous pages

There are distinctions for males and females, as well. For males, it is about 25%, while for females; it remains around 32% (Emedicine, n.p). Obesity has various health hazards, and it leads to common psychological problems. However, there remains another dimension of obesity. Obesity may have economic consequences, as well. This dimension may come across as a surprise to many individuals. However, obese people are an economic burden on the health care system. In the United States alone, the medical costs involving obese individuals stood at the figure of $147 billion (CDC, n.p). In developed countries alone, the medical costs of obesity cost around 10% of the total medical costs.

Such costs also come under projection to grow (MODI, n.p). The paper, through the examination of different case studies examines the economic impacts of obesity, involving burden on the health care system, the direct as well as the indirect economic costs of obesity and the way obesity often leads to inactivity. Literature Review Since obesity has become widely known as an epidemic, numerous studies have been conducted on the purpose of assessing the economic impacts of obesity. A study by Ross A Hamond and Ruth Levine in 2010 in United States alone found out the different dimensions within the economic impacts of obesity (Hammond & Levine, pp. 285-294), which included direct medical costs, productivity costs, transportation costs and human capital costs.

The purpose of this study (Hammond & Levine, pp. 285-294) was to review all the current evidence found on this particular subject. Some of the direct costs were described, which included the treatment of psychological problems such as hypertension, depression, which occurs due to obesity. Moreover, the health conditions include Type 2 diabetes, coronary heart disease, and hypercholesterolemia. Many of these costs attribute to the research and the treatment of these problems, which poses a financial burden on medical resources.

The study also mentions and elaborates the Thompson model of finding out the incidence between obesity and some particular outcomes. In this study (Hammond & Levine, pp. 285-294), a topic of interest also remains over the agreement between various studies about the economic impacts of obesity, but there are some important differences between the studies. Productivity costs, although not completely direct also examine the way obesity may pose an economic burden to the resources of a country. This problem focuses much on the productivity lost due to obesity in the labor market.

It includes two dimensions: absenteeism, in which the worker is not present at the workplace because of healthcare reasons and presenteeism, in which the workers exhibit lower productivity while at work. Sometimes, obesity may also lead to disability, which further results in inactivity. Disability insurance premiums and inactivity constitutes part of indirect costs. The study mentions another example from Thompson, which found out that $5 billion were spent on indirect medical costs in 1994 in United States alone, in the form of sick leaves, life insurance and disability insurance.

This particular paper by Hamond and Levine (pp. 285-294) also examined the transportation costs, associated with obesity. Overweight people tend to fit in large vehicles. They are less likely to travel by public and therefore wastage of fuel occurs. Moreover, obesity has been found by different scholars to lead to low self-esteem, lower educational attainment, and lower income, leading to low

...Download file to see next pages Read More
Cite this document
  • APA
  • MLA
  • CHICAGO
(“Economic Impact of Obesity: Literature Review Essay”, n.d.)
Economic Impact of Obesity: Literature Review Essay. Retrieved from https://studentshare.org/english/1433558-economic-impact-of-obesity-literature-review
(Economic Impact of Obesity: Literature Review Essay)
Economic Impact of Obesity: Literature Review Essay. https://studentshare.org/english/1433558-economic-impact-of-obesity-literature-review.
“Economic Impact of Obesity: Literature Review Essay”, n.d. https://studentshare.org/english/1433558-economic-impact-of-obesity-literature-review.
  • Cited: 0 times

CHECK THESE SAMPLES OF Economic Impact of Obesity: Literature Review

Encouraging Young Adults to Make Healthier Food Alternatives

 … The purpose of the chapter is to conduct a literature review on unhealthy eating behaviours of young adults, the scenario related to food labelling within the United Kingdom and the role of persuasive technology in encouraging healthier food choices in order to gain an in-depth comprehension about the prevailing circumstances.... This review tells that persuasive technology has a major role to play in order to encourage better decision making amid young adults....
11 Pages (2750 words) Literature review

Levels of Physical Activity and Older People

Physical activity levels in older people in rural areas are comparatively less when we consider the urban elder people because of social, economic and cultural factors.... This paper "Levels of Physical Activity and Older People" presents the older generation of the Irish people, especially in rural areas....
8 Pages (2000 words) Literature review

What is the evidence on Parents or Family role in Childhood Obesity in UK

While the condition is perfectly preventable, the trend of childhood obesity is increasingly becoming a major health concern in most developed countries.... Thus, the thesis statement for this study is to examine the role of parents in childhood obesity in the UK. The prevalence of childhood According to the BHF (2012), at least 33% of girls and 25% of boys aged 2-19 years in the UK are obese.... That notwithstanding, it is projected that the prevalence of childhood obesity will be around 10....
3 Pages (750 words) Literature review

Effects of Fats and Cholesterol on Cardiac Disease

This paper uses a research strategy to establish the relation between fat and cholesterol to cardiac diseases by studying literature and research published on the subject.... Different researches carried out focusing specifically on the relation between fat, obesity, cholesterol metabolism and cardiac diseases have been extensively studied; excerpts from these researches have been used to describe the above-mentioned aspects leading to cardiac disease....
9 Pages (2250 words) Literature review

The Incidence of Diabetes Type 2

his research paper aims to conduct a literature review for the research question “what is the role of the anti-inflammatory agent in the prevention of type 2 diabetes in people with obesity?... rdquo; and construction of its hypothesis in the light of a thorough literature review.... hellip; literature search: Sears and Ricordi had discussed the role of anti-inflammatory diet in obese individuals against the development of diabetes and found it beneficial because anti-inflammatory agents cut down the inflammation in adipose tissues and through this, it had decreased The Incidence Of Diabetes Type 2....
6 Pages (1500 words) Literature review

Obstructive Sleep Apnoea Hypopnoea Syndrome

"Obstructive Sleep Apnoea Hypopnoea Syndrome" paper is a systematic review that seeks to set a centralized research question, based on which the researcher will try to identify, appraise, choose and synthesize related and high-quality research papers that seek to answer the research question.... here are a number of modalities that seem to define a systematic review and how it should be conducted.... noted that “A review earns the adjective systematic if it is based on a clearly formulated question, identifies relevant studies, appraises their quality and summarizes the evidence by use of explicit methodology”4....
10 Pages (2500 words) Literature review

Overweight and Obesity on Adults and Children Across Various Sectors

This paper aims to investigate the impact of internalization of weight stigma on the self-worth of overweight persons, as well as their health practices especially eating habits and physical activity.... The paper "Overweight and obesity on Adults and Children Across Various Sectors" states that the areas of stigma have been identified as a workplace, learning institutions, health settings, and other public places.... verweight and obesity continue to prevail in most parts of the world and in all sectors....
9 Pages (2250 words) Literature review

The Prevalence of Obesity in Saudi Adolescents

The author of the paper "The Prevalence of obesity in Saudi Adolescents" will begin with the statement that there are about 350 million obese people and over a billion people with a higher body mass index or (BMI) worldwide (El Ansari et al, 2010).... Similarly, in 1996, the prevalence of obesity throughout Saudi Arabia was about 15.... Although it cannot be considered a public health crisis at this time, obesity in childhood and adolescence can have a number of negative consequences, including the burdens of obesity-related morbidity and mortality in adulthood (Jelalian & Steele 2008)....
7 Pages (1750 words) Literature review
sponsored ads
We use cookies to create the best experience for you. Keep on browsing if you are OK with that, or find out how to manage cookies.
Contact Us