OBESITY AND HEALTHCARE

Obesity affects Healthcare costs

ABSTRACT

The problem of obesity and the impact on the healthcare industry is one of the most important topics in Healthcare Sector. Rapid growth in obesity among various sections of populations has increases the health care costs to a very large extent. There are several sectors such as government, businesses and non-profit agencies While the causes and factors related to these increased costs are complex, the problem is obese employee have a higher propensity to have a negative impact on health care cost. All the issues related to obesity, past statistics and current trend were discussed to explore the main contents of the topic. There was a high need to assess the total population in USA suffering from obesity and factors that are contributing for the overall trend. Most of the reasons identified in the research that causes obesity were the lifestyle and diet of the people. It was seen that youth carries the largest threat of suffering from this disease rather than middle or old age population. The only way that can help them in tackling this problem is to improve their lifestyle and maintain physical fitness. Secondly, improvement must be sought in the eating habits and overall diet to gain energy and strength. They cannot afford to have other diseases resulting from obesity that can lead to more undesirable consequences. All these factors were regarded very important for US citizens in overcoming the problem of obesity. Therefore, all these issues were discussed in detail during the whole literature (Adams, 2007).

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABSTRACTii

TABLE OF CONTENTSiii

CHAPTER 1: THE PROBLEM OR ISSUE1

Problem Statement1

Justification of the study1

Research Objectives1

Significance of the research3

Definition of terms3

Summary4

CHAPTER 2: REVIEW OF RELEVANT PUBLISHED INFORMATION5

Overview5

Individual Determinants Model5

Vulnerability Model6

Socio demographic correlates of obesity7

Race Ethnicity/Gender7

Socioeconomic Characteristics8

Health Behavior Risk Factors8

Nutrition9

Healthcare Status and Utilization10

CHAPTER 3: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS15

Conclusion15

Recommendations16

REFERENCES19

CHAPTER 1: THE PROBLEM OR ISSUE

Problem Statement

Rising health care costs affects the economic vitality of many agencies; from government, businesses, and non-profit agencies to families and individuals. While the causes and factors related to these increased costs are complex, the problem is obese employee have a higher propensity to have a negative impact on health care cost.

Justification of the study

There is a justification for the study conducted for this research. The issue of obesity is one of the huge concerns for US citizens. The rate of obesity especially among the youth is rising every year. This factor has raised health care costs for the people who go to the hospitals for treatment. There are various institutions such as government agencies, businesses and non-profit organizations that are getting affected because of these rising costs. This is the reason why a proper research work was needed to tackle this problem. Therefore, these were the aspects that required the justification of this particular research problem.

Research Objectives

This research has three objectives:

Examining correlation of individual adult obesity in the US

Projection of the future rate of obesity in US

The first objective of this study was to evaluate which individuals were ...