Wellness Program Blog

Obesity

Obesity, one of the fastest increasing epidemics in America, is the most prevalent health risk among workers. 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 obese.
• Obesity has roughly the same association with chronic health conditions as 20 years of aging.
• Greater than 20 percent of very overweight workers have low morale, almost twice that of workers of healthy weights.
• Overweight and Obesity medical claims cost around $92 billion in 2002, 9.1 percent of all United States Health Care expenditures.

Mental Illness

Often ignored or misdiagnosed, mental illness is one of the most disruptive health issues in employers. It is unique in that its indirect costs (particularly presenteeism) are often higher than its direct medical 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 Health Care spending.
• Around 217 million days of work are lost each year 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 each year, including workplace costs for absenteeism and lost productivity.

Smoking

Though smoking rates have decreased slightly in the U.S. over the past decade, smokers still make up 21.1 percent of the population.  For many employers, limitations on smoking in facilities means a greater loss of productivity 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 productivity and $1,623 in excess medical expenditures.
• Workers who use tobacco had about two times more lost production time (LPT) per week than workers who never smoked, a cost of $27 billion to employers.
• An economic assessment found that a Health 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 smoking-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 decrease an individual’s Health Care costs by $960 each year.
• Secondhand smoke costs the United States economy roughly $10 billion a year: $5 billion in estimated medical 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 each year.
• 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 medical costs associated with heart attack and stroke by an estimated $47 in the first year and $853 during the following seven years.