Research and Literature Summaries on Obesity

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Obesity in OECD Countries Update
June 2014, reviewed on 10.14.15 /

A collection of data analyzed the state of people weight, likely via BMI, to identify trends and patterns within different cultures on obesity. It identifies 1 in 5 children  in the world as obese. Maybe more alarming, it found that over half of all adults are overweight (& 18% are obese). ON a positive, the rate of increase appears to be slowing but growing nonetheless. The worst affected countries appear to be the US, Mexico, & New Zealand. An important insight made in this report is the clear connection nearly across the board of the connection of education and obesity rates. In general, the higher the education, the lower the obesity (*One odd insight I'd like to explore a little deeper is the chart on United States obesity rates, where the middle income obesity appeared slightly higher than the low income). It also appears that, generally, women are more affected by education levels. A multitude of current policy-based initiatives, most of them targeting financial incentives to individuals, are identified and shared such as food/beverage taxes, nutrition labels, & advertising regulations.Mexico is cited as being the most active about addressing the issue, having started campaigns in 2013 that I would assume are continuing today.


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Obesity Consequenes
2008. reviewed on 10.15.15 /

Because this was a summarization of other literature sources. It's easiest to summarize the content into some quick bullet points about the consequences of obesity, which the article works to uncover. That can be broken into two categories for discussion:

Physical Consequences

• Type 2 Diabetes is the most prominent correlation, almost 100 fold in likelihood when obese
• There's also deep correlation to cardiovascualr disease 
• Coronary Artery Disease 
• Stroke (caused by clots) 
• Cardiovascular death 
• Cancer is not as clearly linked, but there a multitude of assocations that have been proven over time. 
• The mental health is linked well through depression & perceived quality of life 
• Women have been shown become less fertile 
• Men have shown increased occurences of erectile dysfunction 
• Respiratory diseases have been connected to obesity 
• some connections have been made with Alzheimers' 
• Excessive weight adds significant strain on joints, muscles, and bones 
• A multitude of other factors appear to impactd by weight not mentioned in above 
• Mortality, after removing issues from "reverse-causation" show dramatic impacts of weight on age of death 

Financial Consequences

• Lost Work, Insurance, & Lower Wages account for the primary financial costs in obesity 
•  Those costs are rising 
• 2 different studies estimate how much that cost actually is 
• in 1986, on study found it to cost $39 billion, about 5.5% of total healthcare 
• Another estimate in 1998, found it to be $42 billion, about 6% of total HC 
• A more accurate repsentation found it to be potentially as high as $147 billion in 2006
• Most recently, in 20015 it was found that $190 billion, or 21% of HC cost is affected 
• per capita medical spending for individuals is about $1429 (per year I'm assuming)
• The costs are very similar to those of smoking