Obesity and Presenteeism: The Impact of Body Mass Index on Workplace Productivity

In the past few decades, obesity rates among American children have skyrocketed. Although many factors have played a part in this unhealthy increase, this paper focuses on how economic policies may be contributing to our children's growing girth and how these policies might be altered to reverse this trend. It examines the economic causes and consequences of obesity, the rationales for government intervention, the cost-effectiveness of various policies, and the need for more research funding.I n the twenty-five years that elapsed between surveys conducted in 1971-1974 and in 1999-2000, the prevalence of obesity rose from 5 percent to 10.4 percent among two-to-five-year-olds; from 4 percent to 15.3 percent among six-to-elevenyear-olds; and from 6.1 percent to 15.5 percent among twelve-to-nineteen-year-olds. 1,2 Economic Factors And Childhood ObesityChildhood obesity is a complex, multidisciplinary issue, so the search for solutions requires information sharing across many fields. To promote such exchange, this paper describes research findings from the field of economics. Relative to other disciplines, economics has only recently been applied to the study of obesity. As a result, there are many useful applications yet to be made.Economics offers several useful tools for the study of childhood obesity: insights into the economic causes and consequences of obesity, clearly defined rationales for government intervention in markets, and the use of cost-effectiveness analysis for comparing policies to prevent or reduce obesity. This paper summarizes recent research in each of those areas. It concludes by discussing the implications for health policy.Economic explanations for the recent rise in obesity tend to focus on changes that give people incentives to consume more or to burn fewer calories. These include the following.FOOD PRICES The real price of food (the price of food adjusted for inflation across all goods and services) has declined greatly in recent decades. For example, between 1990 and 2007 the real price of a two-liter bottle of Coca-Cola fell 34.89 percent, and that of a McDonald's quarter-pounder with cheese fell 5.44 percent.3 Some research indicates that reductions in the price of food account for 41-43 percent of the rise in young adults' body mass index (BMI) between 1981 and 1994. 4 BMI is most sensitive to the price of fast food in particular for youth from families of low socioeconomic status.5 The real price of fruit and vegetables rose 17 percent between 1997 and 2003, 6 an increase that some studies have linked to higher BMI in American children and adolescents. 7,8 AGRICULTURAL POLICIES The decline in the price of food could be due to agriculture policies. However, several studies have concluded that such policies have little impact on consumer prices of energy-dense foods.9,10 About half of farm subsidies are based on historic, not current, production, which limits incentives for farmers to increase output.9 Moreover, U.S. farm policy raises John Cawley (JHC38@cornell .ed...

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“…36 Also, obesity is associated with lower productivity while at work (presenteeism), which totals $506 per obese worker per year. 37 …”

Section: Economic Consequences Of Childhood Obesitymentioning

confidence: 99%

The Economics Of Childhood Obesity

2010

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“…Notably, obesity accounts for 42.3, 30.9, 22.4, and 9.8 % of the increase in the number of cases of diabetes, heart disease, hypertension, and hyperlipidemia, respectively, in the past quarter century [5]. Finally, obesity has a large impact on patient wellness, productivity [12][13][14], and quality of life [2,3], and is associated with significant costs to healthcare payers and society [1,4,5,15].…”

Section: Unchecked Obesity Epidemic and Its Burdenmentioning

confidence: 99%

For a Step Change to Curb the Obesity Epidemic

Frois

Crémieux

2015

PharmacoEconomics

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“…On the other hand, healthy productive age women are expected to give birth and create a healthy and quality generation. Economically, obesity also lowers the productivity of labour (Gates et al, 2008). Hence, an increasing number of people with obesity allegedly reduces public productivity, especially if obesity occurs in the productive population, which is the main asset in the challenge of the demographic dividend.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Competition and Cooperation in Economics and Business

Husodo¹,

Gitaharie²,

Gani³

et al. 2017

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Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. Although all care is taken to ensure integrity and the quality of this publication and the information herein, no responsibility is assumed by the publishers nor the author for any damage to the property or persons as a result of operation or use of this publication and/or the information contained herein. Business -Gani et al. (Eds) © 2018 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-1-138-62666-9 v Business -Gani et al. (Eds) © 2018 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-1-138-62666-9 ix Preface This book is one of the five volumes of proceedings that provides an opportunity for readers to engage with selected papers presented at the 1st Asia-Pacific Forum for Research in Social Sciences and Humanities (1st APRISH) conference held in Depok (Indonesia) on November 7-9, 2016. Quoting the theme of the conference "Competition and Cooperation in the Globalized World," this book would be a valuable contribution to get a better understanding of the future global challenges. Readers will find a broad range of research reports on topics ranging from globalization, poverty, population and some macroprudential perspectives on managing the risk of a more integrated world. One of the unique and valuable dimensions of this conference is the capability for blending the chemistries among educators, students, and researchers from around the world to discuss globalization in a broad spectrum. The reader will discover both common challenges and creative solutions emerge from very diverse settings. The relevance of the conference's theme, towards an evidence-based society, for a variety of disciplines, is reflected in the diverse range of papers that have been submitted for publication. These serve to demonstrate the natural attraction of the conference for sharing ideas and findings within an international community. Overall, the conference was undoubtedly very successful. Plenary lectures and presentations were successfully bridging the gap between the different fields of social sciences, making it possible for non-experts in a given area to gain insight into new areas. Also, among the speakers there were some young scientists, namely, doctoral, master's and undergraduate students, who bring new perspectives to their fields. Terms of use: Documents in EconStor may Competition and Cooperation in Economics and Competition and Cooperation in Economics andThe editors would like to thank all those who have contributed to submit full papers for this conference. We rece...

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Obesity and Presenteeism: The Impact of Body Mass Index on Workplace Productivity

Abstract: The relationship between BMI and presenteeism is characterized by a threshold effect, where extremely or moderately obese workers are significantly less productive than mildly obese workers.

Cited by 230 publications

References 38 publications

The Economics Of Childhood Obesity

The Economics Of Childhood Obesity

For a Step Change to Curb the Obesity Epidemic

Competition and Cooperation in Economics and Business

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