New research published yesterday in the Medical Journal of Australia shows the total direct cost of overweight and obesity in Australia is $21 billion a year, double previous estimates. The research, conducted by the University of Sydney’s Boden Institute of Obesity Nutrition and Exercise, isolates for the first time the cost of “overweight” people in Australia putting it at $6.5 billion a year.<\/p>\n
The figures relate to heath care costs such as hospitalisation, medical care and medications and do not include the annual $35.7 billion in government subsidies that overweight and obese people receive.<\/p>\n
Directors of the Boden Institute and research authors Professors Stephen Colagiuri and Ian Caterson said, “Australia has one of the highest prevalence of overweight and obesity amongst developed countries and it is costing us dearly at government, individual and societal levels. The imperative to lose weight is clear because the research shows the cost was lower in overweight or obese people who lost weight or reduced weight circumference compared with those who progressed to or remained obese.”<\/p>\n
The research was based on the respected 2000 and 2005 national population study Australian Diabetes, Obesity and Lifestyle and showed the total direct cost of $21 billion was in fact significantly higher than the previously estimated $10 billion. To read the complete paper, click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" New research published yesterday in the Medical Journal of Australia shows the total direct cost of overweight and obesity in Australia is $21 billion a year, double previous estimates. The research, conducted by the University of Sydney’s Boden Institute of Obesity Nutrition and Exercise, isolates for the first time the cost of “overweight” people in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4129,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-390699","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390699","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4129"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=390699"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390699\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=390699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=390699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=390699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}