Quantifying the Issue

Obesity

Obesity, one of the fastest growing epidemics in America, is the most prevalent health risk among staff members. Obese people are at a greater risk for several chronic diseases such as congestive heart failure, type 2 diabetes, stroke and hypertension. Facts:

• The prevalence of overweight and obesity has doubled since 1980.
• Two-thirds (66.3 percent) of the population is overweight or obese (using Body Mass Index as a measure); 32.3 percent are corpulent.
• Obesity has roughly the same association with chronic health conditions as 20 years of aging.
• More than 20 percent of very overweight staff members have low morale, almost twice that of staff members of healthy weights.
• Overweight and Obesity health care claims cost around $92 billion in 2002, 9.1 percent of all United States Medical Care expenditures.

Mental Illness

Often ignored or misdiagnosed, mental illness is one of the most disruptive health issues in companies. It is unique in that its indirect costs (particularly presenteeism) are frequently higher than its direct healthcare costs. Facts:

• Approximately 20 percent of the United States population is affected by mental illness during a given year, with the most common form being depression; yet in 1997, only 23 percent of American adults diagnosed with depression received treatment.
• In 2001 mental illness and substance abuse treatment cost more than $104 billion, comprising 7.6 percent of domestic Medical Care spending.
• Around 217 million days of work are lost annually due to productivity decline from mental illness and substance abuse disorders, costing $17 billion each year.
• Depression is one of the most costly workplace health problems, costing the United States $43.7 billion annually, including workplace costs for absenteeism and lost productivity.

Smoking

Though smoking rates have gone down slightly in the U.S. over the past 10 years, smokers still make up 21.1 percent of the population. For many companies, limitations on smoking in buildings means a greater loss of productiveness during breaks, adding to the costs of the practice. Facts:

• The United States Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) puts a $3,391 price tag on each employee who smokes: $1,760 in lost productiveness and $1,623 in excess health care expenditures.
• Employees who use tobacco had about two times more lost production time (LPT) per week than staff members who never smoked, a cost of $27 billion to companies.
• An economic assessment found that a Medical Care plan’s annual cost of covering treatment to help people quit smoking ranged from $0.89 to $4.92 per smoker, whereas the annual cost of treating tobacco-related disease ranged from $6 to $33 per smoker.
• The direct and indirect costs of smoking are estimated at $138 million per year.43 Finding Wealth Through Wellness 19 • Quitting smoking could reduce an individual’s Medical Care costs by $960 each year.
• Secondhand smoke costs the United States economy roughly $10 billion a year: $5 billion in estimated healthcare costs associated with secondhand smoke exposure, and another $4.6 billion in lost wages.
• From 1997-2001, tobacco use and exposure to tobacco smoke resulted in approximately 438,000 premature deaths in the U.S., 5.5 million years of life lost, and 92 billion dollars in productivity losses annually.
• Smokers, on average, miss 6.16 days of work per year due to sickness (including smoking related acute and chronic conditions), while people that do not use tobacco miss 3.86 days of work per year.
• Each smoker who successfully quits lowers the anticipated healthcare costs associated with heart attack and stroke by an estimated $47 in the first year and $853 during the following seven years.