Fall 2002
Volume 109 - No. 3
Fall 2002
Volume 109 - No. 3
BLE Focus
The high cost of an unhealthy life
One way to reduce the costs of health care is catching on - don't get sick in the first place. Easier said than done, right? Wrong. Wellness programs are catching on around the country as people (and companies) try to curb the enormous costs of being sick by simply keeping people well.
Wellness programs aim to control the spread of chronic diseases. Chronic diseases - such as heart disease, cancer, and diabetes - are the leading causes of death and disability in the United States. These diseases account for 7 of every 10 deaths and affect the quality of life of 90 million Americans. Although chronic diseases are among the most common and costly health problems, they are also among the most preventable. Adopting healthy behaviors such as eating nutritious foods, being physically active and avoiding tobacco use can prevent or control the devastating effects of these diseases:
Diabetes
Diabetes affects nearly 16 million Americans and contributes to about 200,000 deaths a year. Diabetes can cause heart disease, stroke, blindness, kidney failure, leg and foot amputations, pregnancy complications and deaths related to influenza and pneumonia. Approximately 5.4 million Americans are unaware they have the disease.
The direct and indirect costs of diabetes are nearly $100 billion a year. The average health care cost for a person with diabetes in 1997 was $10,071, compared with $2,699 for a person without diabetes.
Cardiovascular disease
About 950,000 Americans die of heart disease or stroke each year. Although heart disease and stroke are often thought to affect men and older people primarily, it is also a major killer of women and people in the prime of life. Each year, about 63 of every 100,000 deaths are due to stroke.
Looking at only deaths due to heart disease or stroke, however, understates the health effects of these two conditions:
The economic effects of heart disease and stroke on the U.S. health care system grows larger as the population ages. In 2001, for example, the cost for all cardiovascular diseases was $300 billion: for heart disease the cost was $105 billion; for stroke, $28 billion. Lost productivity due to stroke and heart disease cost more than $129 billion.
Tobacco
Each year, 440,000 people die of diseases causes by smoking or another form of tobacco use that is about 20 percent of all deaths in the United States. Secondhand smoke results in 3,000 nonsmokers dying of lung cancer and 300,000 children suffering from respiratory tract infections. If current smoking patterns continue, 25 million people alive today (including 6.4 million children) will die prematurely of smoking-related causes.
In 1998, the direct medical costs associated with smoking were more than $75 billion (about 8 percent of the personal health care expenditures in the United States). The cost of smoking to Medicaid in 1998 was more than $24 billion, or 14 percent of all Medicaid expenditures. This estimate does not include the costs of smoking-related neonatal disorders.
Obesity
From 1987 to 1999, overweight and obesity increased dramatically among U.S. adults, and now obesity has reached epidemic proportions. More than 60 percent of adults are overweight or obese, and the percentage of young people who are overweight has more than doubled in the last 30 years. Between 10 percent and 15 percent of Americans aged 6-17 years are overweight.
Effects of Physical Inactivity and Unhealthy Diets
Poor diet and physical inactivity lead to 300,000 deaths each year - second only to tobacco use. People who are overweight or obese increase their risk for heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, arthritis-related disabilities, and some cancers. Not getting an adequate amount of exercise is associated with needing more medication, visiting a physician more often, and being hospitalized more often.
The direct medical costs associated with physical inactivity was $29 billion in 1987 and nearly $76.6 billion in 2000. The annual cost of obesity in the United States is about $100 billion. After controlling for physical limitations and socioeconomic status, researchers found that more than 12 percent of the annual medical costs of inactive people with arthritis is associated with their inactivity.
© 2002 Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers