Lifetime Costs of Childhood Overweight & Obesity

• Project start date: 1 May 2015
• Project status: Completed
• Project type: Food safety
• Discipline: Nutrition
• Principal researcher/s: Prof Ivan Perry, UCC
• Collaborator/s: Prof Ciaran O’Neill, School of Business and Economics, NUI Galway, Dr Anne Dee, Department of Public Health, Health Services Executive, Prof Kevin Balanda, Institute for Public Health in Ireland, Dr Grace O’Malley, Temple Street Children’s University Hospital, Dublin, Dr Laura Webber, UK Health Forum

Research objective

To conduct a series of systematic reviews addressing;

1. The prevalence of overweight and obesity among children on the island of Ireland
2. The effects of overweight and obesity on morbidity (disease or illness) and psychological wellbeing in childhood
3. The effects of childhood overweight and obesity on the risk of obesity, chronic disease, reduced quality of life and mortality (death) in adult life
4. The effects of overweight and obesity on educational outcomes and school attendance in childhood
5. A review of the international literature on the direct and indirect lifetime costs of childhood overweight and obesity completed since the year 2000.

• To determine current annual direct healthcare costs amongst children attributable to childhood overweight and obesity in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland from a public healthcare payer perspective.
• To estimate the lifetime costs, both direct healthcare costs and indirect societal costs (including productivity losses due to absenteeism, premature mortality and lifetime income losses), attributable to childhood overweight and obesity for the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.
• To explore the effect on lifetime costs of a 1% and 5% fall in population mean childhood body mass index (BMI).
• To make recommendations based on the findings, including recommendations on measures that will facilitate ongoing work on the cost of overweight and obesity on the island of Ireland, drawing on both routine data collection in health and social care services, and specific population-based research programmes.

Outputs

Research report

• Title: What are the estimated costs of childhood overweight and obesity on the island of Ireland?
• Publication date: 31 July 2017
• Summary: This study provides, for the first time, reliable, contemporary and locally relevant data on the human and economic burden of childhood overweight and obesity.
• Findings:
  • The current annual direct healthcare costs amongst children attributable to childhood overweight and obesity for Ireland (2015) are estimated at €1.7 million using a standard Cost-of-Illness analysis and €1.3 million using the Closed Cohort Simulation Model-based approach. For NI, it was not possible to apply the direct Cost-of-Illness analysis. Based on the Closed Cohort Simulation Model analysis, the estimated current (2015) costs for Northern Ireland were €0.7 million.
  • The projected lifetime costs from the Closed Cohort Simulation Model analyses (including indirect costs) to the year 2105 that are attributable to overweight and obesity are €4.6 billion and €2.6 billion for Ireland and Northern Ireland respectively. Thus, the total lifetime cost for the island of Ireland (discounted to 2015 rates) is estimated at €7.2 billion. The indirect societal costs account for 79% of total estimated lifetime costs in Ireland and 74% of the costs for Northern Ireland.
  • The estimated excess lifetime cost attributable to childhood obesity and overweight for Ireland (discounted to 2015 values) is €16,036 per person; the equivalent estimate for Northern Ireland is €22,647 per person.
  • The findings from the Closed Cohort Simulation Model suggest that a 1% and 5% reduction in population mean childhood BMI would be associated with a €270 million and €1.1 billion (Ireland) and €95.8 million and 396.8 million (Northern Ireland) reduction in projected lifetime costs, respectively.
  • Although the international literature on lifetime costs among children is limited and somewhat inconsistent, the findings on the distribution of costs between direct healthcare and indirect societal costs are in agreement with previous research. By contrast, the estimates of excess lifetime costs attributable to childhood overweight and obesity are lower than those reported in the literature to date. However, comparisons are difficult as a majority of the previous studies focussed exclusively on either direct or indirect costs; and the literature is dominated by studies from the US, where direct healthcare costs are considerably higher than in Europe.

   
• Recommendations:
  1. The obesity strategies and action plans in Ireland and Northern Ireland should be implemented and supported, with adequate resources to prevent and manage childhood overweight and obesity.
  2. A whole population and life-course approach to the obesity epidemic is necessary to ameliorate, or lessen the effects of, the current epidemic, with a strong emphasis on intervening in the obesogenic environment, balanced with supports for parents and carers.
  3. An annual evaluation of progress of the obesity action plans including, for example, the impact of measures such as the tax on sugar-sweetened drinks, is indicated, given the demonstrated potential benefit of interventions to address overweight and obesity highlighted by this research.
  4. There must be increased investment in data collection that will provide accurate and reliable population-based data for conducting cost-of-illness studies and related health economic analysis. Data collected must include information on utilisation of health services and illness-related productivity loss and absenteeism from work and school.
  5. Research into the psychosocial impacts of overweight and obesity on the island of Ireland is warranted, given the information gap identified.

   

  You can download the report and a summary below.

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