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CLEVELAND, Ohio — Half of Ohio’s adult residents could be obese by 2018, a number that would send the state’s health costs spiraling, according to a new report from health advocacy groups.
Ohio is one of six states that could see its obesity rate top 50 percent in less than 10 years, according to the report based on research by an Emory University professor.
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Such an high obesity rate would push annual obesity-related health costs in the state to $16 billion, or $1,877 per adult. However, if the state’s obesity rate remained at its 2008 level of 34 percent, per-adult health costs would run about $433 annually, the report says. Nationally, the cost of treating obesity-related health problems is $361 per adult today, but the study projects that number to rise to $1,425 by 2018.
“It’s clear that we cannot sustain the cost of obesity if the current trends continue,” said James Castle, president and CEO of the Ohio Hospital Association, in a statement that accompanied the report.
Nationally, 31 percent of adults are obese, but the report projects that number to jump to 43 percent by 2018. Three factors point to the cost of treating obesity escalating in the future: the increase in the number of people who are obese, the increasing cost of treatments specific to obesity-related illnesses and the demographic shift in population with a general trend for older people to be obese, according to the report.
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The report, “The Future Costs of Obesity,” was written by Kenneth Thrope, an Emory University professor of health policy. It was commissioned by UnitedHealth Foundation, Partnership for Prevention and American Public Health Association.
According to Thrope’s projections, only Oklahoma, at $1,906, would spend more per adult than Ohio on obesity-related health issues by 2018. Colorado, with an obesity rate currently at 24 percent that’s expected to rise to 30 percent by 2018, would spend the least in 2018, at $864 per adult.
In March, the Ohio Department of Health released a plan to fight obesity. The plan’s goals include improving physical activity opportunities, enhancing access to healthy food options and improving the coordination of policy and resources directed at reducing obesity, according to a statement from the department.
The percentage of adults in Ohio who are overweight or obese, 63.3 percent, is slightly higher than the nationwide average of 63 percent, according to data from the Kaiser Family Foundation.