Obesity Costs Austria €2.4 Billion a Year

Obesity Costs Austria €2.4 Billion a Year

Image: APA/dpa-Zentralbild

 

Almost 5% of all healthcare spending in Austria goes towards treating obesity and its related illnesses, which claim around 4,000 lives annually.

A study presented by the Institute for Advanced Studies (IHS) on Wednesday revealed that 53% of the EU population is overweight, with a Body Mass Index (BMI) of 25 or above.

In Austria, 18% of men and 15% of women suffer from obesity, defined as a BMI of 30 or higher. Among nine-year-olds, 10% of boys and 6.7% of girls are already obese, according to Thomas Czypionka, head of the IHS Health Economics and Health Policy group.

The IHS study, based on 2019 data, found that obesity-related costs in Austria totalled €2.4 billion, said study author Stephanie Reitzinger. Of that, €1.9 billion were healthcare costs, and €480 million came from indirect costs such as lost productivity due to illness-related absenteeism.

Obesity was responsible for 537,000 hospitalisation days, 1.2 million sick days, and contributed to 5.6% of disability pensions.

Reitzinger stressed that the figures exclude informal care, care allowances, psychological stress, and the reduced earnings of those affected due to discrimination and limited career options.

Obesity increases the risk of type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, cancer, osteoarthritis, and can lead to infertility. People aged 45 with severe obesity die, on average, five years earlier and lose nearly ten healthy years of life. “Obesity impacts health, quality of life, life expectancy, and income,” summarised Czypionka.

“We can see that the government must take action,” said Dr Florian Kiefer of the Austrian Obesity Alliance (ÖAA). The ÖAA is open to discussing measures such as banning adverts for sweets on children’s channels or introducing a sugar tax, suggested Kiefer, an internist and endocrinologist at Vienna’s AKH general hospital. Physical education in schools should focus “not on performance, but on the joy of movement,” to avoid demotivating children who struggle with physical activity, Czypionka proposed. He also recommended teaching nutrition in schools, pointing out that in Japan, children even help prepare their meals.

“We should finally recognise obesity as a chronic disease in its own right,” was one of the ÖAA’s demands at the press conference. The public needs to be informed, and efforts made to reduce stigma and discrimination. Obesity, Kiefer stressed, is not caused by “a lack of discipline or willpower” in those affected. He called for more prevention measures and fair, easy access to guideline-based treatment.

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