In the last 30 years, the rate of obesity in the United States has more than doubled. In a 1976-1980 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, the prevalence of obesity among adults aged 20-74 years was 15 percent. In 2003-2004, NHANES found that number had increased to 32.9 percent.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 32 percent of adults in the U.S. are overweight and 34 percent are obese, as defined by the World Health Organization. Likewise, a recent Conference Board report entitled Weights and Measures: What Employers Should Know about Obesity determined that 34 percent of American adults currently fit the definition of "obese."

Maintaining healthy weight is important to workers themselves and should also be a high priority for employers who value their employees' health. Yet those extra pounds can be as bad for an employer's bottom line as they are for a person's health and waistline.

Over the past decade, the extra weight Americans are carrying has weighed heavily on the airline industry alone. According to a study in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine (via Newswire), the increase in the average passenger's weight required airlines to use an extra 350 million gallons of fuel at a cost of $275 million each year — and that was based on prices in 2000, when jet fuel cost 79 cents per gallon, compared to roughly $1.80 in February 2007.

Last year, a Duke University Medical Center study of the health records of more than 11,000 university employees found that obese workers filed twice the number of workers' compensation claims, had seven times higher medical costs from those claims and lost 13 times more days of work from work injury or work illness than other workers. The analysis, published in April 2007's Archives of Internal Medicine, covered a diverse group of workers, such as administrative assistants, groundskeepers, nurses and professors.

Among American workers participating in corporate health and wellness assessments, obese workers had a substantially higher prevalence of metabolic, circulatory, musculoskeletal and respiratory disorders. In other words, overweight and obese workers are more at risk for many preventable — and costly — diseases, such as diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, arthritis and stroke.

The average medical claims costs per 100 employees were $51,019 for the obese and just $7,503 for the non-obese, according to the Duke University analysis.

Today, obese employees cost U.S. private employers an estimated $45 billion annually in medical expenditures and work loss, The Conference Board claims. Obesity is associated with a 36 percent increase in spending on health-care services, according to the research firm. If accurate, that is more than smoking or problem drinking.

The reality is that preventing obesity is considerably cheaper than treating people once they become obese. After all, as HR Hero points out, health care spending in the U.S. is expected to reach $4 trillion in 2015, or 20 percent of the gross domestic product.

The Conference Board says wellness programs to address the obesity issue can get return on investment (ROI) of up to $5 per $1 invested. (The Wellness Council of America estimates that a $1 investment in a wellness program saves $3 in health care costs.)

Among the report's findings:

Estimates of ROI for wellness programs range from zero to $5 per $1 invested. ROI aside, these programs may give companies an edge in recruiting and retaining desirable employees. Meanwhile, some say it may be more effective just to award employees cash and prizes for weight loss rather than devote resources to long-term wellness programs.

Of course, intervening on individual risk factors such as obesity opens up employers to other types of costly claims.

"There is evidence that as weight goes up, wages go down. Employers should be fully aware of any potential discrimination risk before addressing employees' weight, whether for the employee's own good or that of the company," notes a statement from the not-for-profit research organization. Although, today Michigan is the only state that bans discrimination based on weight.

Reported MSNBC last year:

The workplace is becoming an increasingly harsh environment for overweight employees. Experts say more obese employees are feeling slighted by managers and co-workers.

MSNBC pointed to a Yale University survey of about 2,000 overweight women, of which 53 percent polled said co-workers stigmatized them and 43 percent said their employers stigmatized them. "Being stigmatized translated into not being hired, being passed over for promotions, losing a job, or being teased or harassed because of their weight," according to the news report.

"How employers communicate a wellness or weight-loss program is as important as how they design it," The Conference Board determined. "Companies should involve employees in planning health initiatives, rather than working from the top-down, and should make sure personal privacy is protected."

Employers, then, need to "weigh the risks of being too intrusive in managing obese employees against the risks of not managing them."

Resources

Weights & Measures: What Employers Should Know about Obesity
by Linda Barrington and Barbara Rosen
The Conference Board, April 2008

Obesity Costs U.S. Companies as Much as $45 Billion a Year
The Conference Board, April 9, 2008

US Gov't: Obesity Raising Airline Fuel Costs
by Daniel Yee
American Journal of Preventive Medicine (via Newswire), Nov. 6, 2004

Obesity Increases Workers' Compensation Costs
Duke University Medical Center, April 23, 2007

Obesity and Workers' Compensation
by Truls Østbye, M.D., Ph.D.; John M. Dement, Ph.D.; Katrina M. Krause, M.A.
Archives of Internal Medicine, 2007

So You Want to Have a Wellness Program?
by Susan Fahey Desmond
HR Hero, March 14, 2008

Fat Chance: It's Not Easy for Obese Workers
by Eve Tahmincioglu
MSNBC, Jan. 26, 2007

Women Face More Obesity Discrimination in the Workplace
DiversityJobs.com

Prevalence of Overweight and Obesity in the United States, 1999-2004.
by Cynthia L. Ogden, Ph.D., Margaret D. Carroll, M.S.P.H., Lester R. Curtin, Ph.D., Margaret A. McDowell, M.P.H., R.D., Carolyn J. Tabak, M.D., M.P.H., Katherine M. Flegal, Ph.D.
Journal of the American Medical Association 2006; 295:1549-1555.

Economic and Environmental Costs of Obesity: The Impact on Airlines
by A. Dannenberg, D. Burton and R. Jackson
American Journal of Preventive Medicine (Vol. 27, Issue 3; pg. 264-264), October 2004

What Fat Costs America
by Matthew Herper
Forbes.com, Nov. 8, 2007