New Ranking of Fattest States: Obesity Costing $1425 Per US Adult
For 2010 Mississippi has claimed the title of fattest state for the fifth consecutive year, while Colorado continues its streak as the leanest. Maine rose the most places in the rankings over last year, while Oregon dropped the most, according to a new analysis by CalorieLab, Inc.
This poll trends pretty closely to the recent ranking of state health in each of the 50 states in the recent report from America’s Health Rankings.
According to the AHR study, there is a tremendous economic cost of obesity.
Today, it is estimated that $79 billion dollars is spent due to obesity in the United States. With the projected increase in obesity levels, this will increase to $343 billion dollars in 2018 or about ($1,425 dollars per adult in the United States.
The report also details the high cost of inaction. It notes that if the United States were to halt the increase in the prevalence of obesity at today’s levels, we could save $821 per adult in 2018. That is a total of$198,175 million in the United States in 2018.
See Economic Cost of Obesity for all states.
Isn’t it time that your organization implemented a wellness program and fitness campaign. It makes economic sense and it is the right thing to do. Numerous studies have proven that the return on investment of a wellness program can be as high as 6 to 1.
What are you waiting for?
Here’s to a fitter workforce.