The Effects Of Obesity, Smoking, And Drinking On Medical Problems And Costs

2002/03/01 by Roland Sturm · 8 citations
Economics, Econometrics and Finance · Medicine · Social Sciences · #Healthcare Policy and Management #Obesity, Physical Activity, Diet #Health disparities and outcomes

paper · doi:10.1377/hlthaff.21.2.245

openalex publication_date 2002/03/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/30

Abstract

This paper compares the effects of obesity, overweight, smoking, and problem drinking on health care use and health status based on national survey data. Obesity has roughly the same association with chronic health conditions as does twenty years' aging; this greatly exceeds the associations of smoking or problem drinking. Utilization effects mirrors the health effects. Obesity is associated with a 36 percent increase in inpatient and outpatient spending and a 77 percent increase in medications, compared with a 21 percent increase in inpatient and outpatient spending and a 28 percent increase in medications for current smokers and smaller effects for problem drinkers. Nevertheless, the latter two groups have received more consistent attention in recent decades in clinical practice and public health policy.

Cited by

• Direct medical cost of overweight and obesity in the USA: a quantitative systematic review
• Moderate and Severe Obesity Have Large Differences in Health Care Costs
• Lifetime Medical Costs of Obesity: Prevention No Cure for Increasing Health Expenditure
• Rapidly Rising Incidence of Cerebrospinal Fluid Shunting Procedures for Idiopathic Intracranial Hypertension in the United States, 1988–2002
• Overcoming policy cacophony on obesity: an ecological public health framework for policymakers
• The incidence of the healthcare costs of obesity
• Does Health Insurance Make You Fat?
• Obesity in the United States [wikipedia]